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coup de main

/ku də meɪn/

coup de main noun: a sudden development or action carried out to surprise an enemy.

Noun

coup de main (plural coups de main)

  1. A sudden development or action carried out to surprise an enemy.
    • That which of all things he most dreaded was that he should be out-generalled by Mr. Slope; and just at present it appeared probable that Mr. Slope would turn his flank, steal a march on him, cut off his provisions, carry his strong town by a coup de main, and at last beat him thoroughly in a...1857, Anthony Trollope, Barchester Towers, volume II, →ISBN, page 78

Forms of coup de main

pluralcoups de main

Origin of coup de main

Borrowed from French coup de main.

Questions about coup de main

What does coup de main mean?
Coup de main means a sudden development or action carried out to surprise an enemy.
What part of speech is coup de main?
Coup de main is a noun.
How do you pronounce coup de main?
Coup de main is pronounced /ku də meɪn/.
What is the plural of coup de main?
The plural of coup de main is coups de main.

Words near coup de main in the dictionary

  1. coup d'œil
  2. coup de force
  3. coup de foudre
  4. coup de grace
  5. coup de grâce
  6. coup de main
  7. coup de maitre
  8. coup de savate
  9. coup de tat
  10. coup de theatre
  11. coup de théâtre

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: coup de main (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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