3 meanings
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1 —as in:
deposed in the coup
Definition
the sudden overthrow of a government by use of limited force- She's a very talented editor. She's a nice woman. It's not about her. Frankly, it was just a coup. They tried to take over.Rosie O'Donnell
Other Uses (with this meaning)
- A successful coup with no bloodshed.
- The coup conspirators were arrested.
- In 2003, I warned of a "creeping coup" in Russia against the forces of democracy and market capitalism in Russia...John McCain
- They talked for a while about the coup in Uganda, and about the tribal and religious differences there.V.S. Naipaul -- A Bend in the River
- In spite of the wars and coups they were hearing about, Africa was still to them the new continent, and they behaved as though Indar felt like them, was almost one of them.V.S. Naipaul -- A Bend in the River
- After this coup d'etat the Right began to work in silence, but the Left discoursed at length.de Balzac, Honore -- Vendetta
- Come to take part in our coup d'etat?Tolstoy, Leo -- Anna Karenina
coup = the sudden overthrow of a government by use of limited force
coup = the sudden overthrow of a government by use of limited force
coup = the sudden overthrow of a government by use of limited force
2 —as in:
a financial coup
Definition
a brilliant and notable success- We consider it a coup for the University to get the new presidential library.
coup = a brilliant and notable success
Other Uses (with this meaning)
- Signing him was a coup for our club.
- He pulled off a coup. ... He got the Bigburger franchise for our town.V.S. Naipaul -- A Bend in the River
- But the coup the youngest daughter most wanted was to reconcile with her father in a big way.Julia Alvarez -- How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents
- We judged traders by their coups, the contracts they landed, the agencies they picked up.V.S. Naipaul -- A Bend in the River
- a marketing coup
- I did manage to make poor men of a few brokers in New York, but my best coup went wrong.Oppenheim, E. Phillips -- The Malefactor
- The coup de theatre had not come off.Tolstoy, Leo -- War and Peace
coup = a brilliant and notable success
coup = a brilliant and notable success
coup = a brilliant and notable success
3 —as in:
delivered the coup de grace
Definition
deathblow(literally a sword strike that mercifully kills a wounded animal, or metaphorically as the last in a series of things that defeated an opponent, idea, business or other entity.)
- Mercifully, he delivered the coup de grace.
coup de grace = deathblow
Other Uses (with this meaning)
- His 3-point shot with 5 seconds left in the game was the coup de grace.
- To finish a work? To finish a picture? What nonsense! To finish it means to be through with it, to kill it, to rid it of its soul, to give it its final blow the coup de grace for the painter as well as for the picture.Pablo Picasso
- Its use was to give the coup de grace, the final blow, to the foe who would not surrender.Jules Verne -- A Journey to the Center of the Earth
- Soon the LEP would have no option but to launch their bio-bomb, and that was when Artemis Fowl would unveil his coup de grace.Eoin Colfer -- Artemis Fowl
- "Are you sitting?" he asked, as if he were about to deliver the coup de grace.James Patterson -- 1st to Die
- "Well, it must be a very special form of cholera," he said, "because every single corpse has received the coup de grace through the back of the neck."Gabriel Garcia Marquez -- Love in the Time of Cholera
- Ford leaped in with the coup de grace: "Into whatever it was the poem was about!" he yelled.Douglas Adams -- The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
- Sure, that's the way it was, I thought, a short, concise verbal coup de grace, straight to the nape of the neck.Ralph Ellison -- Invisible Man
- He went down, and his own hunting companions, shouting encouragement at the dogs, arrived in time to deliver the coup de grace.Joseph Campbell -- The Hero With a Thousand Faces
coup de grace = deathblow (in this case metaphorically — referring to the last in a series of things that defeated an opponent)