coup de grâce

English

Alternative forms

• coup de grace, coup-de-grace

Etymology

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.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kuː də ɡɹɑs/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

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

Noun

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, […], London: […] W[illiam] Taylor […], →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, 30:36 from the start, in The Battle of Samar (Alternate History) - Bring on the Battleships!‎^[1], archived from the original on 4 July 2022:

     […] 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.

Usage notes

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”).

Translations

final blow

• Armenian: please add this translation if you can
• Belarusian: удар міласэрнасці m (udar milasernasci)
• Catalan: cop de gràcia m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 致命一擊／致命一击 (zhìmìngyījī)

• Danish: nådestød n, dødsstød
• Dutch: genadeslag (nl)
• Esperanto: fina frapo, fina bato
• Finnish: armonisku, armonlaukaus
• French: coup de grâce (fr) m
• German: Gnadenschuss (de) m, Gnadenstoß (de) m
• Greek: χαριστική βολή f (charistikí volí)
• Hungarian: kegyelemdöfés (hu)
• Italian: colpo di grazia (it) m
• Japanese: とどめ (ja) (todome)
• Korean: please add this translation if you can
• Norwegian: nådestøt (no) n, nådeskudd n
• Polish: dobicie (pl) n
• Portuguese: golpe de misericórdia m
• Romanian: lovitură de grație (ro) f
• Russian: уда́р милосе́рдия m (udár milosérdija), после́дний уда́р m (poslédnij udár), смерте́льный уда́р m (smertélʹnyj udár)
• Sinhalese: මරු පහර (maru pahara)
• Spanish: golpe de gracia m, tiro de gracia (es) m, puntilla (es)
• Swedish: nådastöt (sv) c, nådaskott (sv) n
• Thai: please add this translation if you can
• Turkish: son darbe, öldürücü darbe
• Ukrainian: please add this translation if you can

See also

• put someone out of their misery

 

French

Etymology

Literally, “strike of mercy”.

Pronunciation

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

• Audio (FR)

  (file)

Noun

coup de grâce m (plural coups de grâce)

1. finishing blow, coup de grâce

Descendants

• → English: coup de grâce