Coup de grâce
A coup de grâce (/ˌkuː də ˈɡrɑːs/; French for "blow of mercy") is a death blow to end the suffering of a severely wounded person or animal.[1][2] It may be a mercy killing of civilians or soldiers, friends or enemies, with or without the sufferer's consent.
Examples of coup de grâce include shooting the heart or head (typically the back of the skull) of a wounded, but still living, person during an execution or by humanely killing a suffering, mortally wounded soldier, in war, for whom medical aid is not available. Other examples include firing squads administering a coup de grâce if the first hail of gunfire fails to kill the prisoner or a near-beheading to quickly end a samurai's agony after seppuku.
The phrase may also refer to the final event that causes a figurative death:[2] The business had been struggling for years. The sharp jump in oil prices was the coup de grâce.
See also
References
- ^ Editors of the American Heritage Dictionaries, eds. The American Heritage Guide to Contemporary Usage and Style. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2005. ISBN 978-0618604999 p. 119.
- ^ a b Charles Harrington Elster. The Big Book of Beastly Mispronunciations: The Complete Opinionated Guide for the Careful Speaker. 2nd ed. Houghton Mifflin, 2006. ISBN 978-0618423156 p. 110-111.
External links
The dictionary definition of coup de grâce at Wiktionary
