coup de main
- noun
- /kuː də meɪn/
- Jargon
:
coup de main
- It is ironic that the last shah seized nearby Abu Musa and the Tumbs in 1971 on the pretext that islands like these could be taken in a coup de main by "terrorists" to block the flow of Gulf oil.
Examples
-
The soldiers planned a coup de main that would take the opposing troops by surprise and secure the area.
-
The special forces executed a coup de main to capture the enemy's stronghold swiftly at dawn.
-
His team's successful coup de main allowed them to gain control of the strategic hill before the enemy could react.
Synonyms
373
4.9
A sudden attack by police or soldiers on a place
13
3.5
A sudden action that begins without warning to catch people not ready
A sudden attack by troops leaving a defensive position
Antonyms
How Sudden
Surface Forms
Morphology
This is a French loanphrase whose meaning (a sudden, surprise attack) is not compositionally derivable from the English senses of coup, de, and main; the parts do not form a predictable English construction. As a fixed foreign idiom used in military contexts, a B1 learner who knows the constituent words would not reliably infer the intended meaning.
Etymology
Coup de main comes from French and it uses coup, meaning a quick 'blow', and main, meaning the 'hand', so imagine a sudden strike like a fast hand movement. That's why it now means 'a sudden, surprise attack'.