Dictionary

coup de grâce en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• (US) audio
• /kuː də ɡɹɑː/ nonstandard, hyperforeign
• /kuː də ɡɹɑs/

Etymology

First use appears c. 1699. Borrowed from French coup de grâce (“finishing blow”). Originally referring to a merciful stroke putting a fatally wounded person out of misery or to the shot delivered to the head of a prisoner after facing a firing squad.

Meanings

1. A final blow or shot given to kill a wounded person or animal.
   • […] they just went "Right, activate radar, hello everybody, we can see you, you can't see us", and plastered everything in 14-and-16-inch gunfire until everything was broken, burning, and not able to fire back, and then they popped out for the coup de grâce. 2019 March 6, Drachinifel, 30:36 from the start, in The Battle of Samar (Alternate History) - Bring on the Battleships!, archived from the original on 04 Jul 2022:
   • After we had row'd, or rather driven about a League and a Half, as we reckon'd it, a raging Wave, Mountain-like, came rolling a-ſtern of us, and plainly bad us expect the Coup-de-Grace. 1719 May 6 (Gregorian calendar), [Daniel Defoe], The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, […], London: […] W[illiam] Taylor […], →OCLC, page 50:
   • The expression of his face was an appeal; his eyes were full of prayer. […] For what, indeed? For that which we accord to even the meanest creature without sense to demand it, denying it only to the wretched of our own race: for the blessed release, the rite of uttermost compassion, the coup de grâce. 1889, Ambrose Bierce, The Coup de Grâce:
2. (broadly, figuratively) A remarkable finishing action.

Forms

Coordinates

mercy killing

Relateds

put someone out of their misery

Translations (34)

tr öldürücü darbe (final blow) · ru уда́р милосе́рдия (final blow) · fi armonisku (final blow) · el χαριστική βολή (final blow) · eo fina bato (final blow) · es tiro de gracia (final blow) · es puntilla (final blow) · ru после́дний уда́р (final blow) · fr coup de grâce (final blow) · es golpe de gracia (final blow) · hu kegyelemdöfés (final blow) · fi armonlaukaus (final blow) · nl genadeslag (final blow) · sv nådaskott (final blow) · eo fina frapo (final blow) · sv nådastöt (final blow) · pt golpe de misericórdia (final blow) · no nådeskudd (final blow) · da dødsstød (final blow) · da nådestød (final blow) · no nådestøt (final blow) · ru смерте́льный уда́р (final blow) · pl dobicie (final blow) · ja とどめ (final blow) · tr son darbe (final blow) · cmn 致命一擊 /致命一击 (final blow) · de Gnadenschuss (final blow) · be удар міласэрнасці (final blow) · it colpo di grazia (final blow) · ca cop de gràcia (final blow) · si මරු පහර (final blow) · ro lovitură de grație (final blow) · de Gnadenstoß (final blow) · th ตีครั้งสุดท้าย (final blow)