coup de grâce

• coup de grace, coup-de-grace

Late 17th century. 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.

• IPA^(key): /kuː də ɡɹɑs/
• (hyperforeign) IPA^(key): /kuː də ɡɹɑː/

coup de grâce (plural coups de grâce)

1. A final blow or shot given to kill a wounded person or animal.

   Coordinate term: mercy killing

   • 1719 May 6 (Gregorian calendar)​, [Daniel Defoe], The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, […], 3rd edition, London: […] W[illiam] Taylor […], published 1719, →OCLC, page 50:

     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.

   • 1889, Ambrose Bierce, The Coup de Grâce:

     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.

   • 2019 March 6, Drachinifel, The Battle of Samar (Alternate History) - Bring on the Battleships!‎, archived from the original on 4 July 2022, 30:36 from the start:

     […] 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.

2. (by extension) A remarkable finishing action.

Some speakers, aware that some final consonants are dropped in French, drop the final /s/ sound in grâce even though it is pronounced in French, making it sound like French coup de gras (“strike of fat”).

Literally, “strike of mercy”.

• IPA^(key): /ku də ɡʁas/, /ku də ɡʁɑs/

• Audio (FR)

  (file)

coup de grâce m (plural coups de grâce)

1. finishing blow, coup de grâce

• → English: coup de grâce