coup
Part of speech: noun
verb
Morphological type: simple
Topics: bridge
games
Etymology: Reborrowed in modern times from modern French coup (“blow, strike”), from Old French coup, colp, from Late Latin colpus, from Latin colaphus. Doublet of cope and colpus. The same Old French word had been borrowed into Middle English as coupe, caupe (with different pronunciation).
Inflected forms:
form: coups
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: coups
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: couping
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: couped
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: couped
pos: verb
tags: past
Senses:
gloss: A quick, brilliant, and highly successful act.
pos: noun
examples: The conference was a major coup for Robarts, who received congratulations for his 'expert handling' of the 'risky venture.'
While the price was considered a coup for Morgan, enhancing his reputation on Wall Street, Carnegie had a different explanation for his selling price.
"[…]It was quite a coup for Pullen Park to get it. It had been in storage for awhile,^([sic]) and several parks in other places wanted to purchase it."
Yet the capture of Di María, who was the man of the match when Real won a 10th Champions League in May, represents something a coup for United considering the club are not in Europe’s premier club competition and need to strengthen their squad after the team have let five points slip from the first two matches.
The diplomatic messaging of RCEP may be just as important as the economics—a coup for China.
Just imagine if my predecessor came to this dinner this year. Now that would really have been a real coup if that occurred. [audience gasps] Little tough, huh?
gloss: Of Native Americans, a blow against an enemy delivered in a way that demonstrates bravery.
pos: noun
tags: US
historical
examples: Among the Blackfeet the capture of a shield, bow, gun, war bonnet, war shirt, or medicine pipe was deemed a coup.
Thus, for a horseman to ride over and knock down an enemy, who was on foot, was regarded among the Blackfeet as a coup, for the horseman might be shot at close quarters, or might receive a lance thrust.
gloss: A coup d'état.
pos: noun
examples: Military coups and the military regimes which follow from them are so much a feature of third world politics that their presence or absence in any given region might almost be taken as a rough and ready touchstone of third worldliness.
It was the military's discontent with what was happening in the country and in the military that led to the first military coup in January 1966. The First Republic was brought to an ignoble end and replaced with a military government.
The coup was well-planned. Fuel was artificially held back so as to create shortages and dissatisfaction with Brotherhood rule. The old state-controlled unions mounted public sector strikes that further sabotaged the economy and annoyed people. Police-controlled thugs who had been used against the Tahrir Square demonstrations in 2011 came back into action.
gloss: A takeover of one group by another.
pos: noun
tags: broadly
examples: Liz Truss’s government is in chaos after the chancellor refused to confirm he would bring forward his budget to calm the markets and the home secretary accused fellow MPs of a coup against the prime minister. […] Backbenchers also expressed outrage at [Suella] Braverman’s suggestion of a “coup” against Truss.
gloss: A single roll of the wheel at roulette, or a deal in rouge et noir.
pos: noun
gloss: One of various named strategies employed by the declarer to win more tricks, such as the Bath coup.
pos: noun
gloss: To execute a coup.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: The squaws of another race will sing the death-song of their benefactor, and woe to the Sioux if the Northern Cheyennes get a chance to coup !
gloss: To subject (a nation) to a coup d'état.
pos: verb
tags: informal
transitive
examples: We will coup whoever we want! Deal with it.
In response to the accusation that the US government organised a coup against Evo Morales in Bolivia in order for Tesla to secure lithium there, Musk tweeted: “We will coup whoever we want! Deal with it.”
gloss: To empty out, overturn, or tilt, such as from a cart or wheelbarrow.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
Related words: autocoup
autogolpe
coup d'arret
coup de force
coup de foudre
coup de grâce
coup de main
coup de savate
coup d'état
coup de théâtre
coup d'oeil
coup Turc
en coup de sabre
touché
Derived words: anticoup
colonels' coup
count coup
countercoup
coupism
coupist
coupmaking
coup stick
coupstick
generals' coup
palace coup
postcoup
precoup
self-coup
soft coup
Vienna coup
Translations: