coup de grâce
noun
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Borrowed directly from French and first appearing in English at the end of the 17th century, coup de grâce (also sometimes styled without the circumflex as coup de grace) translates literally as "stroke of grace" or "blow of mercy," and originally referred to a mercy killing, or to the act of putting to death a person or animal who was severely injured and unlikely to recover. (In some contexts the term is used to refer to the final act of executing a convicted criminal.) Later, coup de grâce had come to mean "an act or event that puts a definite end to something." Other coup terms that have made the jump from French to English include coup de main, for a sudden, forceful attack, and coup d’état for a violent overthrow of a government usually by a small group.
Examples of coup de grâce in a Sentence
Letters To The Editor, The Orlando Sentinel, 3 July 2025
The coup de grace was delivered a minute into injury time as Mount seized on a poor clearance from Athletic goalkeeper Julen Agirrezabala.
—Carl Anka, New York Times, 9 May 2025
The coup de grace will come some five billion years from now, when our expanding red giant sun engulfs and incinerates poor little Earth.
—Mike Wall, Space.com, 7 May 2025
The coup de grace came Thursday in a 6-4 Oilers’ win at a raucous Rogers Place, which has become a house of horrors for the Kings.
—Houston Mitchell, Los Angeles Times, 2 May 2025
The coup de grace is a 60 minute relaxing massage followed by a natural mood-boosting HigherDose red-light mask.
—Rona Berg, Forbes.com, 24 Apr. 2025
But then Abby delivered the coup de grace, stabbing him with the fire iron.
—Tom Gliatto, People.com, 21 Apr. 2025
The coup de grace for Mansour, first reported in the Chicago Sun-Times, came in November.
—John Lippert, Chicago Tribune, 16 Feb. 2025
Losing Syria, the only other nation-state in the axis other than Iran, may be the coup de grace.
—Nabih Bulos, Los Angeles Times, 8 Jan. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Coup de grâce.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/coup%20de%20gr%C3%A2ce. Accessed 19 Jul. 2025.
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