coupe sombre
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French[edit]
Etymology[edit]
From woodcutting; the idea being that the forest is still dense and dark, because it was only lightly felled.
Pronunciation[edit]
Noun[edit]
coupe sombre f (plural coupes sombres)
- (forestry) light felling, thinning of the trees
- (sometimes proscribed, figuratively, chiefly in the plural) drastic cuts
- faire des coupes sombres dans quelque chose ― to make drastic cuts, to make swingeing cuts, to make substantial cutbacks
Usage notes[edit]
- This idiom is often misunderstood to mean "heavy felling" (for which coupe claire would be the right term), whence the figurative sense.