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Definition: Coup De Grace |
Coup De GraceNoun1. The blow that kills (usually mercifully). Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
| Domain | Definition |
Literature | Coup de Grace The finishing stroke. When criminals were tortured by the wheel or otherwise, the executioner gave him a coup de grâce, or blow on the head or breast, to put him out of his misery. "The Turks dealt the coup de grâce to the Eastern empire."- Times. The following is taken from a note (chap. xxx.) of Sir W. Scott's novel The Betrothed. "This punishment [being broken on the wheel] consists in the executioner, with a bar of iron, breaking the shoulder-bones, arms, thigh-bones, and legs- taking alternate sides. The punishment is concluded by a blow across the breast, called the coup de grâce, or blow of mercy because it removes the sufferer from his agony. Mandrin, the celebrated smuggler, while in the act of being thus tortured, tells us that the sensibility of pain never continues after the nervous system has been shattered by the first blow." Source: Brewer's Dictionary. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
Synonym: Coup De GraceSynonym: deathblow (n). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Completion | Noun: completion, accomplishment, achievement, fulfillment; performance, execution; despatch, dispatch; consummation, culmination; finish, conclusion; close; (end); terminus; (arrival); winding up; finale, denouement, catastrophe, issue, upshot, result; final touch, last touch, crowning touch, finishing touch, finishing stroke; last finish, coup de grace; crowning of the edifice; coping-stone, keystone; missing link; superstructure, ne plus ultra, work done, fait accompli. |
End | Break up, commencement de la fin, last stage, turning point; coup de grace, deathblow; knock-out, -blow; sockdolager. |
Killing | Deathblow, finishing stroke, coup de grace, quietus; execution. (capital punishment); judicial murder; martyrdom. |
Punishment | Lash, scaffold; (instrument of punishment); imprisonment; (restraint); transportation, banishment, expulsion, exile, involuntary exile, ostracism; penal servitude, hard labor; galleys; beating;Verb: flagellation, fustigation, gantlet, strappado, estrapade, bastinado, argumentum baculinum, stick law, rap on the knuckles, box on the ear; blow; (impulse); stripe, cuff, kick, buffet, pummel; slap, slap in the face; wipe, douse; coup de grace; torture, rack; picket, picketing; dragonnade. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Coup De Grace |
| English words defined with "coup de grace": Grace stroke. (references) |
| Domain | Title |
Books | |
Music |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | ![]() | Coup de grace. Credit: Library of Congress. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day |
coup de grace | 12 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "coup de grace"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | ||||||||||||||||
Finnish | armonisku (finishing blow). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||
Manx | builley baaish (death blow, mortal blow). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||
Pig Latin | oupcay eday acegray завершающий смертельный удар. (various references) son darbe (settler), öldürücü darbe (death blow, deathblow, killer, quietus). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-c-c-d-e-e-g-o-p-r-u" | |
-2 letters: decoupage. | |
-3 letters: recouped. | |
-4 letters: acceder, accrued, capered, coerced, cordage, courage, grouped, preaged, precode, proceed, produce, pugaree, recoupe, upgrade. | |
-5 letters: accede, accord, accrue, aerugo, agreed, apercu, apogee, argued, cadger, carped, codger, coerce, cougar, couped, craped, creped, croupe, decare, dogear, dragee, drogue, geared, gourde, graced, groped, ocreae, pardee, parged, peaced, perdue, poured, pugree, pureed, purged, reaped. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Commercial | 5. Images: Photo Album 6. Expressions: Internet 7. Translations: Modern 8. Anagrams | 9. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.