COUP DE MAIN • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Coup de main

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/ku di meɪn/ Listen

noun

Coup n.

1.

A sudden stroke delivered with promptness and force; used also in various ways to convey the idea of an unexpected, clever, and successful tactic or stratagem.

2.

A single roll of the wheel at roulette, or a deal at rouge et noir. (Cant)

3.

Among some tribes of North American Indians especially of the Great Plains, the act of striking or touching an enemy in warfare with the hand or at close quarters, as with a short stick, in such a manner as by custom to entitle the doer to count the deed an act of bravery; hence, any of various other deeds recognized by custom as acts of bravery or honor. "While the coup was primarily, and usually, a blow with something held in the hand, other acts in warfare which involved great danger to him who performed them were also reckoned coups by some tribes." "Among the Blackfeet the capture of a shield, bow, gun, war bonnet, war shirt, or medicine pipe was deemed a coup."

Coup de grace, the stroke of mercy with which an executioner ends by death the sufferings of the condemned; hence, a decisive, finishing stroke.

Coup de main (Mil.), a sudden and unexpected movement or attack.

Coup de soleil (Med.), a sunstroke. See Sunstroke.

Coup d'état (Politics), a sudden, decisive exercise of power whereby the existing government is subverted without the consent of the people; an unexpected measure of state, more or less violent; a stroke of policy.

Coup d'oeil.

(a)

A single view; a rapid glance of the eye; a comprehensive view of a scene; as much as can be seen at one view.

(b)

The general effect of a picture.

(c)

(Mil.) The faculty or the act of comprehending at a glance the weakness or strength of a military position, of a certain arrangement of troops, the most advantageous position for a battlefield, etc.

See images of 'Coup de main'

Etymology of 'Coup de main'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Coup de main" Quotes from Famous Books

... Socrates Smith an air of mystery, portentous and suggestive. He looked like one meditating a coup d'etat, or, perhaps, it might better be said, a coup de main, as the hand is with schoolmasters, generally, the ...

— Hector's Inheritance - or The Boys of Smith Institute • Horatio Alger

... Quebec depend d'un coup de main. Les Anglais sont maitres de la riviere: ils n'ont qu'a effectuer une descente sur la rive ou cette Ville, sans fortifications et sans defense, est situee. Les voila en etat de me presenter la bataille; que je ne pourrais plus refuser, et que je ne devrais pas ...

— History of Friedrich II. of Prussia, Vol. XIX. (of XXI.) • Thomas Carlyle

... between the Belgian army of Antwerp and the British force marching on Mons.... He directed her attention to the last communique of the Ministry of War: "La situation n'a jamais ete meilleure. Bruxelles, a l'abri d'un coup de main, est defendue par vingt mille gardes civiques ...

— Mrs. Warren's Daughter - A Story of the Woman's Movement • Sir Harry Johnston

... attacking the allies as soon as they met them. Vendome, on the other hand, was of opinion that the army which was now collected near Ghent had better advance against Oudenarde, which might be carried by a coup de main before Marlborough could come to its assistance, which he might be some days in doing, seeing that he was in command of a mixed force, composed of Dutch, Danes, Hanoverians, Prussians, and British. ...

— In the Irish Brigade - A Tale of War in Flanders and Spain • G. A. Henty

... officers, I had determined upon an attack upon the fortifications of Callao, intending to carry them by a coup de main, similar to that which had succeeded at Valdivia, and having, on the 18th, taken soundings in the Potrillo, was convinced of the feasibility ...

— Narrative of Services in the Liberation of Chili, Peru and Brazil, - from Spanish and Portuguese Domination, Volume 1 • Thomas Cochrane, Tenth Earl of Dundonald

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