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Coup   Listen
noun
Coup  n.  
1.
A sudden stroke delivered with promptness and force; used also in various ways to convey the idea of an unexpected, clever, and successful tactic or stratagem.
2.
A single roll of the wheel at roulette, or a deal at rouge et noir. (Cant)
3.
Among some tribes of North American Indians especially of the Great Plains, the act of striking or touching an enemy in warfare with the hand or at close quarters, as with a short stick, in such a manner as by custom to entitle the doer to count the deed an act of bravery; hence, any of various other deeds recognized by custom as acts of bravery or honor. "While the coup was primarily, and usually, a blow with something held in the hand, other acts in warfare which involved great danger to him who performed them were also reckoned coups by some tribes." "Among the Blackfeet the capture of a shield, bow, gun, war bonnet, war shirt, or medicine pipe was deemed a coup."
Coup de grace, the stroke of mercy with which an executioner ends by death the sufferings of the condemned; hence, a decisive, finishing stroke.
Coup de main (Mil.), a sudden and unexpected movement or attack.
Coup de soleil (Med.), a sunstroke. See Sunstroke.
Coup d'état (Politics), a sudden, decisive exercise of power whereby the existing government is subverted without the consent of the people; an unexpected measure of state, more or less violent; a stroke of policy.
Coup d'oeil.
(a)
A single view; a rapid glance of the eye; a comprehensive view of a scene; as much as can be seen at one view.
(b)
The general effect of a picture.
(c)
(Mil.) The faculty or the act of comprehending at a glance the weakness or strength of a military position, of a certain arrangement of troops, the most advantageous position for a battlefield, etc.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Coup" Quotes from Famous Books



... are three of them. Your sister has made it all clear," he said. "I know the party—they've been engineering various shady deals in estate and produce, and now, when Winnipeg is getting uncomfortably warm, this is evidently a last coup before they light out across the boundary. The dark man was a clerk in the stock trade—turned out for embezzlement—once, you see. Still, they can't sell until to-morrow, and we might get the night train. No chance of trade hereabout, you say; then, for the ...
— Lorimer of the Northwest • Harold Bindloss

... in a motor-car was greatest of all. He too was very proud of this last coup. He saw Ursula kindle and flare up to the romance of the situation. She raised her head like a young horse snuffing with ...
— The Rainbow • D. H. (David Herbert) Lawrence

... Sylva and his bodyguard were the messengers of their own disaster. The cowardly genius at Pesqueira had planned a surprise. He would not lead it, of course, but in Dom Miguel Barraca he found an eager substitute. It was a coup of the Napoleonic order; an infantry attack along the entire front of the Liberationist position cloaked the launching against the center of a formidable body of cavalry. The project was to thrust this lance into the rebel ...
— The Stowaway Girl • Louis Tracy

... Dieu parmi les infideles que l'on veut convertir. J'ai vu le ministre et notre cure s'entre battre a coups de poing, sur le differend de la religion. Je ne scais pas qui etoit le plus vaillant et qui donnoit le meilleur coup, mas je scais tres bien que le ministre se plaignoit quelquefois au Sieur de Monts d'avoir ete battue, et vuidoit en cette facon les points de controversie. Je vous laisse a penser si cela etoit beau a voir; les sauvages etoient tantot d'une partie, ...
— The Conquest of Canada (Vol. 1 of 2) • George Warburton

... terrible Barney likely to be more abstemious for signal punishment sustained in a far from bloodless victory. Then what could be the meaning of that sickening and most suggestive thud? Could it be the champion himself who had received the coup de grace in his cups? Raffles was the very man to administer it—but he had not talked like that man ...
— A Thief in the Night • E. W. Hornung

... 1970s. The 50% devaluation of the West African franc in January 1994 boosted exports of livestock, cowpeas, onions, and the products of Niger's small cotton industry. The government relies on bilateral and multilateral aid - which was suspended following the April 1999 coup d'etat - for operating expenses and public investment. Short-term prospects depend on upcoming negotiations with the World Bank and the IMF on debt relief and ...
— The 2000 CIA World Factbook • United States. Central Intelligence Agency.

... not gamble again, but then I had no especial desire to—and there was no temptation. I am afraid it was an incident without a moral. Yet it had one touch characteristic of the period which I like to remember. The man who had spoken to me, I think, suddenly realized, at the moment of my disastrous coup, the fact of my extreme youth. He moved toward the banker, and leaning over him whispered a few words. The banker looked up, half impatiently, half kindly—his hand straying tentatively toward the pile of coin. I instinctively knew what he meant, and, summoning ...
— Under the Redwoods • Bret Harte

... opportunity that the Vazir resolved to strike. Hastily raising, such a force as the poor remnant of the imperial treasury could furnish, he marched on Lahor, taking with him the heir apparent, Mirza Ali Gauhar. Seizing the town by a coup de main, he possessed himself of the Lady Regent and her daughter, and returned to Dehli, asserting that he had extorted a treaty from the Afghan monarch, and appointed Adina Beg sole ...
— The Fall of the Moghul Empire of Hindustan • H. G. Keene

... besiegers, until interrupted by Catiline's arrival, had been to take the stronghold in reverse, while a false attack in front should be in progress, and throwing ten or twelve stout soldiers into the heart of the place, to make themselves masters of it by a coup-de-main. ...
— The Roman Traitor (Vol. 2 of 2) • Henry William Herbert

... well be worse with him than they were now. So he piled all on one coup, and stood to be sunk or saved by the Prix de Dames. Meanwhile, all the same, he murmured Mussetism to the Guenevere under the ruins of the Alte Schloss, lost or won a rouleau at the roulette-wheel, gave a banknote to the famous Isabel for a tea-rose, drove the Zu-Zu four ...
— Under Two Flags • Ouida [Louise de la Ramee]

... two weeks before in high emplacements, while their advanced columns were threatening down to Paris. The Germans even then were preparing a safe place of retreat for themselves in case their grand coup should fail, and our British troops had to suffer from this organization on the part of an enemy which was confident of victory but remembered the need of a ...
— The Soul of the War • Philip Gibbs

... war on the side of Germany was actuated by a German diplomatic coup, which in itself is regarded now as further evidence that a clear road through to the Dardanelles was considered in Berlin as a primary and imperative purpose of ...
— Kelly Miller's History of the World War for Human Rights • Kelly Miller

... the Expedition of Algiers the next year was to show him to be a military man of the first order. If Charles X. committed an error in naming him as minister, he committed a greater one in sending him away from Paris before the "ordinances," for no one was more capable of securing the success of a coup ...
— The Duchess of Berry and the Court of Charles X • Imbert De Saint-Amand

... Company, however, attempted to split the anti-machine forces by praising the Campbell bill, and setting the anti-machine Senators to disputing over the relative merits of the Campbell and Stetson bills. But nothing came of this graceful little coup. Campbell and his followers were too sensible to be caught by any such trickery. They gave their loyal support to the Stetson bill, and the Campbell bill was allowed to die in the Senate Judiciary Committee. ...
— Story of the Session of the California Legislature of 1909 • Franklin Hichborn

... plusieurs de leurs compaignons tombez morts, & blessez, que de crainte qu'ils auoient, croyans ces coups estre sans remede ils se iettoient par terre, quand ils entendoient le bruit: aussi ne tirions gueres a faute, & deux ou trois balles a chacun coup, & auios la pluspart du temps nos arquebuses appuyees sur le bord de leur ...
— Voyages of Samuel de Champlain, Vol. 1 • Samuel de Champlain

... at first sight," affirmed d'Alcacer, "as well as love at first sight—the coup de ...
— The Rescue • Joseph Conrad

... adapted for the destruction of Pendennis, a like tower of strength on the opposite side of the Channel. We have seen St. Maws, but Pendennis they will not let us behold, save at a distance, because Hobhouse and I are suspected of having already taken St. Maws by a coup ...
— Life of Lord Byron, Vol. I. (of VI.) - With his Letters and Journals. • Thomas Moore

... be made for the momentous coup Sir Rowland meditated were considerable. Mr. Newlington was yet to be concerted with and advised, and, that done, Sir Rowland had to face the difficulty of eluding the Bridgwater guards and make his way to Feversham's camp at Somerton to enlist ...
— Mistress Wilding • Rafael Sabatini

... when you depart from the ordinary established rules of play, with certain reasons for each special case. Do not hesitate when attempting a coup. Consider what the play of your adversaries means, as well as that of ...
— The Laws of Euchre - As adopted by the Somerset Club of Boston, March 1, 1888 • H. C. Leeds

... was the basis of Dr. Rutledge's coup. The laws governing this reaction had been more or less worked out by a group of scientists in the twentieth century. They had demonstrated that if a guinea-pig or rabbit were injected with the blood serum of another species, a subsequent dose of an infinitely ...
— The Sword and the Atopen • Taylor H. Greenfield

... was not admitted to the secret councils of Augusta Goold and her friends. He knew no more than the general public what kind of a coup was meditated, but he gathered from Miss O'Dwyer's nervous excitement and Tim Halloran's air of immense and mysterious importance that something quite out of the common was likely to occur. By arriving an hour and a half before the opening of ...
— Hyacinth - 1906 • George A. Birmingham

... Napoleon than Uncle Lawrence knew. Even then and there, in Mrs. Kingfisher's ball-room, had Fanny Newt resolved how to carry her Mantua by a sudden coup. ...
— Trumps • George William Curtis

... might be, and what was his business at the Consulate. "Am I then so changed?" he exclaimed with a vast depth of tragic intonation; and after a little blind and bewildered talk, behold! the truth flashed upon me. It was the Doctor of Divinity! If I had meditated a scene or a coup de theatre, I could not have contrived a more effectual one than by this simple and genuine difficulty of recognition. The poor Divine must have felt that he had lost his personal identity through the misadventures ...
— Our Old Home - A Series of English Sketches • Nathaniel Hawthorne

... perhaps, was not quite fair to endeavour to bring him to a confession, as he might not wish to avow positively his taking part against the Court. He smiled and hesitated. The General at once relieved him, by this beautiful image: 'Monsieur Goldsmith est comme la mer, qui jette des perles et beau-coup d'autres belle choses, sans s'en appercevoir.' GOLDSMITH. 'Tres ...
— Life Of Johnson, Vol. 2 • Boswell, Edited by Birkbeck Hill

... At first sight "Coup d'oeil impartial sur l'Ancienne Magistrature" may seem to give even more promise of November than of May. But there is action here, and it really has something to do with the story. Also, the subsequent treatment of the recluse or anchoress of the severest type in ...
— A History of the French Novel, Vol. 2 - To the Close of the 19th Century • George Saintsbury

... and assembled the train-bands wi' took o' drum. By good luck, the worthy James Rabat was Dean o' Guild that year—(and a gude mason he was himsell, made him the keener to keep up the auld bigging), and the trades assembled, and offered downright battle to the commons, rather than their kirk should coup the crans, as others had done elsewhere. It wasna for luve o' Paperie—na, na!—nane could ever say that o' the trades o' Glasgow—Sae they sune came to an agreement to take a' the idolatrous statues of sants ...
— On the Old Road, Vol. 2 (of 2) - A Collection of Miscellaneous Essays and Articles on Art and Literature • John Ruskin

... drinks before he approached his fourth man, a real-estate agent; nevertheless, he was floored with a coup as decisive as a syllogism. The real-estate agent said that he had three brothers in the investment business. Viewing himself as a breaker-up of homes Anthony ...
— The Beautiful and Damned • F. Scott Fitzgerald

... now in your youth. I will myself teach you the coup d'archet. By using a few hours in each day, which would otherwise be wasted, you may hope to have excellent cravats in middle life. The whole knack lies in pointing your chin to the sky, and then arranging your folds by the gradual descent ...
— Rodney Stone • Arthur Conan Doyle

... in which they afterwards appear. For my own part, I conceive that, with the particulars of M. Pasteur's experiments before us, we cannot fail to arrive at his conclusions; and that the doctrine of spontaneous generation has received a final 'coup de grace'. ...
— Lectures and Essays • T.H. Huxley

... officers, upon receipt of which a German cruiser squadron was sent out and engaged the British vessels to its own discomfiture. But for the airman's vigilance and smartness there is no doubt that the British squadron would have accomplished a great coup. ...
— Aeroplanes and Dirigibles of War • Frederick A. Talbot

... Greenville on the day before, and who were now about to return. The Indians were, according to some authorities, under the command of the Bear chief, an Ottawa; others assign their leadership to the Little Turtle. That they had planned a coup de main and a sudden re-capture of the position is certain. Their army consisted of about fifteen hundred men; they had advanced in seventeen columns, with a wide and extended front, and their encampments were perfectly ...
— The Land of the Miamis • Elmore Barce

... a un concert a Buckingham Palace, aux cotes de la duchesse de Sutherland, il se leva tout a coup, et s'en fut au fond de la piece, ou il s'assit aupres de la duchesse d'Inverness. La chose fut remarquee, et l'on soupconna quelque querelle, aussi fut-il interroge par un ami sur la cause de son attitude, et il ...
— Collections and Recollections • George William Erskine Russell

... the true significance and the revolutionary character of the Hegelian philosophy (to which, as the conclusion of all progress since Kant, we must here limit ourselves) in that it, once and for all, gave the coup de grace to finiteness of results of human thought and action. Truth, which it is the province of philosophy to recognize, was no longer, according to Hegel, a collection of ready-made dogmatic statements, ...
— Feuerbach: The roots of the socialist philosophy • Frederick Engels

... the receiver. Out of the tail of his eye as he hung it up he saw Sig Gulwing just entering the hotel, in proper disguise for the character of the district telegraph manager with a grudge against pool rooms and a plan for making enough at one coup to enable him to quit his present job; the job was mythical, and the grudge, too—bits merely of the fraudulent drama now about to be played—but surely Gulwing was most solid and dependable and plausible looking. His make-up was perfect. To get here so soon ...
— Sundry Accounts • Irvin S. Cobb

... than one hour to wait, according to the schedule Citizen Drew had promulgated in regard to the unvarying movements of the Honorable Archer Converse. As to how this first coup in the operations of that nascent organization, the Public-spirited Press Gang, was to be managed Farr had ...
— The Landloper - The Romance Of A Man On Foot • Holman Day

... confined to her bed) Page 53: Changed macron to aigu accent (employes attached) Page 53: Changed authorties to authorities (authorities wished) Page 54: Changed dimished to diminished (diminished all at once) Page 54: Changed a to a (tout a coup) Page 54: Changed entasses to entasses (crowded [entasses]) Page 54: Changed Franec to France (state like France) Page 56: Added missing end-quotes (to the Burraumposter.") Page 57: Changed ...
— Letters on the Cholera Morbus. • James Gillkrest

... le 'GLORIEUX-ACCOMPLI' (Sakya mouni ou Buddh) sejournait dans la foret 'd'Odma,' il advint un jour, qu'etant entoure de ses nombreux disciples un rayon de lumiere de cinq couleurs sortit tout-a-coup entre ses deux sourcils, forma un arc-en-ciel, et se dirigea du cote de l'Empire septentrional de neige (Thibet). Les regards du Bouddha suivaient ce rayon, et sa figure montra un sourire de joie inexprimable. Un de ses disciples ...
— Diary of a Pedestrian in Cashmere and Thibet • by William Henry Knight

... up from Athens, where I had found the Allied diplomats still smarting under the memories of their ignominious experiences following Constantine's spectacular coup of the previous December, and it was by no means the least of these who had told me point-blank that he could not conceive how it would be possible that Saloniki should be returned to Greece after the war. Of course it was the Royalist Government that my distinguished friend had had ...
— World's War Events, Volume III • Various

... rose and began to move about the room unsteadily. His narrow forehead was contracted, as if he were thinking deeply; his lips worked, his hands closed and unclosed in his pockets in which they were thrust, and he glanced from side to side furtively. So might a criminal look while plotting a coup more than usually risky and dangerous. Presently he came alongside the table on which the footman had placed the spirit-bottles and syphons. Heyton mixed himself a stiff glass of whisky and soda, drank it almost at a draught, then nodded at the reflection ...
— The Woman's Way • Charles Garvice

... story of one who had much and who wanted more, who strained every nerve to win in the great game he was playing, the game of money-getting. It was the story of one who risked all in one grand final coup, who risked all and lost all. And what was risked and lost was not his alone; everything belonging to his mother and sister had gone too. Worse still, he had made use of money which was not theirs, funds of the bank of which he was treasurer. Of course, ...
— The Alchemist's Secret • Isabel Cecilia Williams

... of Governor Latham to the Senate, places John G. Downey in the chair of California. If not a "coercionist," he is certainly no "rebel." The leaders of the Golden Circle feel that chivalry in the West is crushed, unless saved by a "coup de main." McDougall is a war senator. Latham, ruined by his prediction that California would go South or secede alone, sinks into political obscurity. The revolution, due to David Terry's bullet, brought men like Phelps, Sargent, T. W. ...
— The Little Lady of Lagunitas • Richard Henry Savage

... in Marbury vs. Madison was a political coup of the first magnitude, and by it he achieved half a dozen objects, some of the greatest importance. In the first place, while avoiding a direct collision with the executive power, he stigmatized his enemy Jefferson as a violator of the laws which as President he was sworn to support. ...
— John Marshall and the Constitution - A Chronicle of the Supreme Court, Volume 16 In The - Chronicles Of America Series • Edward S. Corwin

... partie de l'Asie et de l'Afrique. Eh bien, ayez comme moi le courage de le lire; et si vous lui accordez d'avoir vu peut-etre Constantinople, la Palestine et l'Egypte (ce que moi je me garderois bien de garantir), a coup sur au moin vous resterez convaincu que jamais i, ne mit le pied dans tous ces pays dont il parle a l'aveugle; Arabie, Tartarie, Inde, ...
— The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques, - and Discoveries of The English Nation, Volume 10 - Asia, Part III • Richard Hakluyt

... vault wall until the bank officials were alarmed and an armed guard was sent scurrying about to investigate. And with the timely arrival of Tiernan and that armed guard came an end to the most audacious and staggering criminal coup ...
— Stories from Everybody's Magazine • 1910 issues of Everybody's Magazine

... that they were cannonading, and firing volleys of musket-balls, and that the corpses bestrewed the pavement; that, according to all appearances, it was a massacre,—a sort of Saint Bartholomew improvised by the coup d'etat; that they were ransacking the houses at a few steps from us, and that they were killing every one. The murderers were going from door to door, and were drawing near. He urged us to leave Grevy's house without delay. It was manifest that the Insurrectionary ...
— The History of a Crime - The Testimony of an Eye-Witness • Victor Hugo

... trembling hands covering her face, much as a large cat gloats over a mouse, helpless beneath his paws. He lied deliberately about the letter, which even then reposed in the inside pocket of his immaculate frock coat. But he reserved it for a final coup. He knew that Olga, believing Karl was in possession of the letter, would yield to the inevitable; that she would again confess her love, even to Karl himself, and that only a miracle of resolution and faith and strength could save the two young people from the abyss of dishonor and unhappiness ...
— The Devil - A Tragedy of the Heart and Conscience • Joseph O'Brien

... to give thought to anything so personal as position or titles. This morning, however, time was found to send my name to the Minister of Foreign Affairs as "Attache Civil a l'Ambassade Americaine," and to request the customary "coup fil." ...
— The Note-Book of an Attache - Seven Months in the War Zone • Eric Fisher Wood

... again, and she trotted down from the Arc de Triomphe between two rippling little streams of comment and admiration, with, "Comme elle est belle!" "Quelle aplomb!" "Matin, quelle chic!" "Elle est forte gentille!" "C'est le coup de grace!" "Le chapeau! le chapeau!" "La belle Pearl! la belle Pearl!" reaching her distinctly at ...
— Stage Confidences • Clara Morris

... were hopeless I knew he would have seen her—dashed—before he would have relinquished it. There plainly was still hope for poor George. Indeed his lordship might well have planned some splendid coup; this defacement would be a part of his strategy, suffered in anguish for his ultimate triumph. Quite cheered I became at the thought. I still scanned the street crowd for some one who could acquaint me with developments I ...
— Ruggles of Red Gap • Harry Leon Wilson

... made his mind work better. It always did. He began painstakingly to put things together. The red-headed man knew the routine here in every detail. He knew Sattell. That part was simple. Sattell had planned this multi-million-dollar coup, as a man in prison might plan his break. The stripped interior ...
— Scrimshaw • William Fitzgerald Jenkins

... descriptive of some peculiarity or circumstance associated with the person named. Indeed, names were often changed after important events in a person's life, thus our old friend Thakombau began life as Seru, then after the coup d'etat in which he slaughtered his father's enemies and reestablished Tanoa's rule in Mbau he was called Thakombau (evil to Mbau). At the time he also received another name Thikinovu (centipede) in allusion to his stealthiness in approaching to bite his enemy, but this designation, ...
— Popular Science Monthly Volume 86

... speech with a plan for making an ingenious coup for Valmond, when his Kalathumpians should parade the streets on the evening of St. ...
— The Judgment House • Gilbert Parker

... animated by no great philanthropy, no vast love of humanity in her work; only she wanted, with all her soul she wanted, to count in the general economy of things; to choose a work and do it; to help on, donner un coup d'epaule; and this, supported by her own stubborn energy and her immense wealth, she felt that she was doing. To do things had become her creed; to do things, not to think them; to do things, not to talk them; to do things, not to read them. No matter how lofty the thoughts, how brilliant ...
— A Man's Woman • Frank Norris

... this the whole coup might have been ended on Monday or Tuesday at latest, instead of dragging on day ...
— Six days of the Irish Republic - A Narrative and Critical Account of the Latest Phase of Irish Politics • Louis Redmond-Howard

... venture hung Napoleon's world-projects. Coute que coute, he had told Mouche, he must bring off this coup. So he was employing on it the pick of the first Army the world had ...
— The Gentleman - A Romance of the Sea • Alfred Ollivant

... whether I should not have written a North Briton against it, if the printers were not all sent to Newgate, and Mr. Wilkes to the Tower—ay, to the Tower, tout de bon.(279) The new ministry are trying to make up for their ridiculous insignificance by a coup d''eclat. As I came hither yesterday, I do not know whether the particulars I have heard are genuine—but in the Tower he certainly is, taken up by Lord Halifax's warrant for treason; vide the North Briton of Saturday was se'nnight. It is said he refused to obey ...
— The Letters of Horace Walpole Volume 3 • Horace Walpole

... d'Aboville, saluting, "moi cannoniers vous implorent de leur donner l'honneur immortel en mettant feu au premier coup de cannon." ...
— Janice Meredith • Paul Leicester Ford

... The form is not so fine, the extent of the stage is, or appeared to be, less; but there is infinitely more gilding and ornament; the mirrors and lights, the sky-blue draperies produce a splendid effect, and the coup-d'oeil is, on the whole, more gay, more theatre-like. It was crowded in every part, and many of the audience were in dominos and fancy dresses: a few were masked. Rossini's Barbiere di Seviglia, which contains, I think more melody than all his other operas put together, (the ...
— The Diary of an Ennuyee • Anna Brownell Jameson

... 6th of December, 1851, at a time when France was in a political uproar—or, more justly perhaps, was settling down from political uproar. The famous coup d'etat of that year had happened four days before. Maitre Dorange, defending Helene, asked for a remand to a later session on the ground that some of his material witnesses were unavailable owing to the political situation. An eminent doctor, M. Baudin, had ...
— She Stands Accused • Victor MacClure

... executioner gave the signal. One would have thought a very few blows would have finished so frail a being, but he seemed as hard to kill as the venomous reptiles which must be crushed and cut to pieces before life is extinct, and the 'coup de grace' was found necessary. The executioner uncovered his head and showed the confessor that the eyes were closed and that the heart had ceased to beat. The body was then removed from the cross, the hands and feet fastened together, and it was thrown ...
— Widger's Quotations from Celebrated Crimes of Alexandre Dumas, Pere • David Widger

... he returned, followed by a gentleman in a great-coat, whom we had never seen, and whom he introduced immediately to Mrs. Locke by the name of M. de la Chtre. The appearance of M. de la Chtre was something like a coup de thatre; for, despite our curiosity, I had no idea we should ever see him, thinking that nothing could detach him from the service ...
— The Diary and Letters of Madame D'Arblay Volume 3 • Madame D'Arblay

... the equivalent of days and nights of honest labor will surely be convinced thereafter of the superiority of theft over toil as a means of money-getting. Invariably the manufacturer of "made dollars," after his first coup, forsakes forever after the cold arithmetic of commerce for the rule of guess, dream, hope, and "I will," which constitutes the mathematics of high finance. Addicks' first "made dollars" came with such magical ease that there awoke in his slumbering substitute for a soul a disgust for those ...
— Frenzied Finance - Vol. 1: The Crime of Amalgamated • Thomas W. Lawson

... detective grows up in an atmosphere of business. Romance, adventure are incidental—and rare. Before he can bring off any big coup he has thoroughly to understand the handling of the big machine of which he forms part. And above all he must have courage—not merely physical courage, but a courage that will assume big responsibility in ...
— Scotland Yard - The methods and organisation of the Metropolitan Police • George Dilnot

... kept the Butterfield stage line open, and the affair at Stein's Pass is cited to show something of their character, although it took place after the company began removing its rolling-stock. For in 1860 Russel, Majors & Waddel accomplished a remarkable coup and brought the overland ...
— When the West Was Young • Frederick R. Bechdolt

... hit them when they were close," cried one passenger. "I said, he would not try. It was un grand shot, messieurs, un coup merveilleux." ...
— Nat the Naturalist - A Boy's Adventures in the Eastern Seas • G. Manville Fenn

... gave him a cordial handshake, begged him not to stand upon ceremony, and returned, to his dealing. More than thirty cards were already on the table. Tchekalinsky paused after each coup, to allow the punters time to recognize their gains or losses, politely answering ...
— The Queen Of Spades - 1901 • Alexander Sergeievitch Poushkin

... our country we should stand further back than this, and so get a more comprehensive coup d'oeil,' said Dare, as Somerset selected ...
— A Laodicean • Thomas Hardy

... know all. That little coup of Tunbridge was played by the Aunt Bernstein with excellent skill. The old woman is the best man of our family. While you were arrested, your boxes were searched for the Mohock's letters to you. When you were let loose, the letters had disappeared, and you said nothing, like a wise woman, ...
— The Virginians • William Makepeace Thackeray

... importance in the foreign policies both of France and England. For several years, Louis Philippe and his Prime Minister Guizot had been privately maturing a very subtle plan. It was the object of the French King to repeat the glorious coup of Louis XIV, and to abolish the Pyrenees by placing one of his grandsons on the throne of Spain. In order to bring this about, he did not venture to suggest that his younger son, the Duc de Montpensier, should marry Isabella; that would have been too obvious a move, which would have raised immediate ...
— Queen Victoria • Lytton Strachey

... extracted the items of uniform one by one, unfolded them, and held them up for inspection. The king regarded each garment attentively and somewhat wonderingly as I held it up, but did not appear to be very profoundly impressed; and I began to fear that my great coup was about to miss fire. When, however, I came to the sword, drew it from its scabbard, flourished the glittering blade round my head, and made several cuts and points at an imaginary enemy, His Majesty ...
— Through Veld and Forest - An African Story • Harry Collingwood

... still angry at the manner in which the great whisky-running coup had been effected, and of the manner in which the perpetrators of it had slipped through the official fingers. He blamed everybody, and particularly Inspector Fyles, in whose hands ...
— The Law-Breakers • Ridgwell Cullum

... sheep and other things, proceeded to attack the place. Close at their heels followed a number of those who had set out on the foray armed with spears, so that the storming party across the ravine amounted to more than two thousand. But, finding that they could not take the place by 5 a coup-de-main, as there was a trench running round it, mounded up some breadth, with a stockade on the top of the earthwork and a close-packed row of wooden bastions, they made an attempt to run back, but the enemy fell ...
— Anabasis • Xenophon

... streets, and upon platforms crossing them, with paintings of movable figures strung across them, Sing-Song houses, &c. &c. If you add to this an immense multitude of fantastically-dressed Chinamen, each carrying a lighted lantern richly ornamented, the coup d'oeil will be better imagined than I ...
— Kathay: A Cruise in the China Seas • W. Hastings Macaulay

... Mr. Chesterton's grand philosophical "coup" is a simple and effective one—the turning of everything, complacently and hilariously, upside down. One has the salutary amusement in reading him of visualizing the Universe in the posture of a Gargantuan baby, "prepared" for a sound smacking. Mr. Chesterton himself is the chief actor in this ...
— One Hundred Best Books • John Cowper Powys

... for the Regeneration of the Arctic Regions—the Greenland affair of my friend de Mersch. Churchill is going to make a grand coup with that—to keep himself from slipping down hill, and, of course, it would add immensely to your national prestige. And he only half sees what ...
— The Inheritors • Joseph Conrad

... somewhat diverging to the right of the road, so as to introduce a broken Gothic bridge, and a part of the Roche Don, or Roche Notre Dame (for I believe it bears both names). The rest of the town of Avignon, placed as it is on a low level, affords no striking coup d'oeil, from the direction in which we approached it: the ancient walls, however, which inclose its whole circumference, unbroken and perfect, and beautifully crenated in every part, are a very remarkable ...
— Itinerary of Provence and the Rhone - Made During the Year 1819 • John Hughes

... were amazed at the developments, and watched the trouble grow with the greatest concern. The contests on the open ground beyond the quarries were frequent and free, and then there came a lull; but from Cow Flat came rumours of a grand coup meditated by the leaders on that side. Preparations were being made for an attack by a large body, and the forcible abduction of all the goats, irrespective of individual rights. The excitement had now reached fever heat, and there were few men in Waddy who were not ready, even anxious, ...
— The Gold-Stealers - A Story of Waddy • Edward Dyson

... fascinated beyond her control. The Vigilantes had planned their coup deliberately and well. The air she was breathing began to reek with the pungent smell of burning. A light smoke haze began to flood the picture. Now she beheld moving figures in the lurid glow which backed the scene. They were horsemen. But whether or not they ...
— The Forfeit • Ridgwell Cullum

... schooner was shut in as completely as if she were in dry-dock with the gates closed at low tide. In truth it was but fair reprisal for the trick played on Leyden's vessel by Barry in Surabaya; but Jerry Rolfe had not been aware of that exploit, and this last coup was to him simply a piece of bald wickedness, swiftly ...
— Gold Out of Celebes • Aylward Edward Dingle

... Coup-d'Oeil Rapide sur mes differentes voyages et mon sejour dans la nation Creck, par Le Gal. Milfort, Tastanegy ou grand chef de guerre de la nation Creck et General de Brigade au service de la Republique Francaise." Paris, 1802. Writing in 1781, he said ...
— The Winning of the West, Volume One - From the Alleghanies to the Mississippi, 1769-1776 • Theodore Roosevelt

... get much change out of it. The mountain region has invariably either been in possession of the conquerors at the start, or else it has been acquired by deliberate, protracted process during the course of a lengthy struggle, before the dramatic coup has been delivered by which the levels have been won. The wide belt of highlands extending from Switzerland to Croatia remained in the enemy's hands up to the time of the final collapse of the Dual Monarchy subsequent to the rout of the Emperor Francis' ...
— Experiences of a Dug-out, 1914-1918 • Charles Edward Callwell

... upon it," said Wilton Barnstable, politely. And from revolving his thumbs benignly towards himself he began to revolve them urbanely from himself. The reversal was imitated at once by Barton Ward, but Watson Bard was slower in putting this new coup into execution. ...
— The Cruise of the Jasper B. • Don Marquis

... the occasion. There was the card-table group, where Mr. Muhlen, with heightened colour in his cheeks, was losing money in so brilliant a fashion that everyone swore he must be on the verge of coming into a legacy or making some COUP with a rich woman. In another room the so-called bawdy section, presided over by the dubious Mr. Hopkins, were discussing topics not adapted to polite ears. The artistic group, sadly thinned by the ejection of four of its more imaginative and virile members who had distinguished ...
— South Wind • Norman Douglas

... encroachment of barbarians menacing Spanish power. Rezanov, plenipotentiary of the Czar, was a man of charming personality, however, and was able to lull the suspicions of the indolent Spanish officials and lay his plans for a coup that never took place. From afar Britain looked with interest upon this strip of coast with its matchless harbor, and regretted that Drake had not discovered it when he wintered his ship close by in 1579. Thus Yerba Buena sprawled and dreamed in the ...
— Fascinating San Francisco • Fred Brandt and Andrew Y. Wood

... that after reaching manhood he never lied. The absolute frankness from which he never departed under any circumstances gave him prestige superior to his rank. A mere Lieutenant, he voted 'No' to the Coup d'Etat of December 2, and was admonished by his colonel who was sorry to see him compromise thus his future. He replied with his usual rectitude: 'Colonel, since my opinion was asked for, I must ...
— Battle Studies • Colonel Charles-Jean-Jacques-Joseph Ardant du Picq

... of Texans has made what prairie men call a "coup." On counting the corpses of their slain enemies they find that at least one-half of the Tenawa warriors have fallen, including their chief. They can make an approximate estimate of the number that was opposed to them by the signs visible around the camp, as also upon the trail they ...
— The Lone Ranche • Captain Mayne Reid

... his calibre. More than once Rivero seemed anxious to secure the arrest of Mateo Sanz, but I constantly urged him to remain patient. He frequently begged me to reveal the true extent of my knowledge, but I always evaded his questions because I was not yet in a position to make a triumphant coup, and ...
— The Stretton Street Affair • William Le Queux

... man; (of mixed blood) metisse, ladino, mestizo, guacho, griffe, mameluco, half-breed. Associated Words: tepee, wigwam, tomahawk, lodge, wickiup, sachemdom, pueblo, calumet, totem, totemism, powwow, roanoke, coup, gens, Manito, pogamoggan, potlatch, chinook, runtee, ...
— Putnam's Word Book • Louis A. Flemming

... the first shot fired by Washington's command against a petty officer on the frontier. That shot echoes on the Plains of Abraham, at Lexington and Bunker's Hill, at the taking of the Bastille, and with the "whiff of grape-shot"; we may hear it at Waterloo and in the autumn horrors of the Coup d'Etat. ...
— A History of the Four Georges, Volume II (of 4) • Justin McCarthy

... Mrs. Farnum only once since her coup d'etat, when she had given an account of that last interview with the heart-broken wife. The letter had been posted that same day, for the woman had not hoped that Virgie would leave the house so quickly, even though she knew she ...
— Virgie's Inheritance • Mrs. Georgie Sheldon

... nether nankeens but thin for such weather; but he was a brave lad; and sorry were the folks for him, when he fell off in taking over sharp a turn, by which old Pullen, the bell-ringer, who was holding the post, was made to coup the creels, and got a bloody nose.—And but the last was a wearyful one! He was all life, and as gleg as an eel. Up and down he went; and up and down philandered the beast on its hind-legs and its fore-legs, funking like mad; yet ...
— The Life of Mansie Wauch - tailor in Dalkeith • D. M. Moir

... not know what the population of Paris could have done to resist the insurrection. "Gather round your chiefs," says the proclamation. This is more easily said than done, when we do not know what has become of them. The division caused in the National Guard by the Coup d'Etat of the Central Committee had for its consequence the disorganisation of all command. Who was to distinguish, and where was one to find the officers that had remained faithful to the cause ...
— Paris under the Commune • John Leighton

... prevent her from accomplishing the change by rolling hastily to the side of the easel the stool, the box of colors, and even the picture by Prudhon, which the absent pupil was copying. After this coup d'etat the Right began to work in silence, but the ...
— Vendetta • Honore de Balzac

... The first coup d'oeil, as the sun slid into the position described, impressed me very much as I have been impressed, when a boy, by the concluding scene of some well-arranged theatrical spectacle or melodrama. Not even ...
— The Works of Edgar Allan Poe - Volume 2 (of 5) of the Raven Edition • Edgar Allan Poe

... of the next three days, that Lady Lydbrook's whole life was centered upon the possession of jewels of great value, and I was amazed to discover how very cleverly she plotted the coup which ...
— The Golden Face - A Great 'Crook' Romance • William Le Queux

... 1851 was chiefly notable for a tour to Italy, made immortal in the beautiful poem of The Daisy, in a measure of the poet's own invention. The next year, following on the Coup d'etat and the rise of the new French empire, produced patriotic appeals to Britons to "guard their own," which to a great extent former alien owners had been unsuccessful in guarding from Britons. The Tennysons ...
— Alfred Tennyson • Andrew Lang

... unparalleled sensation. He gave a great number of concerts in Vienna, among them several for the poor. A fever seized all classes of society. The shop windows were crowded with goods a la Paganini; a good stroke at billiards was called un coup a la Paganini; dishes Avere named after him; his portrait was enameled on snuff-boxes, and the Viennese dandies carried his bust on the head of their walking-sticks. A cabman wheedled out of the reluctant violinist permission to print on his cab, Cabriolet de Paganini. ...
— Great Violinists And Pianists • George T. Ferris

... Now, when the Sioux are drawn up in line of battle, and are all ready to fight, you jump on me, and ride as hard as you can, right into the middle of the Sioux, and up to their head chief, their greatest warrior, and count coup on him, and kill him, and then ride back. Do this four times, and count coup on four of the bravest Sioux, and kill them, but don't go again. If you go the fifth time, maybe you will be killed, or else you will lose me. "La-ku-ta-chix" ...
— The Great Salt Lake Trail • Colonel Henry Inman

... cannot possibly be avoided, but when they are forced to fight in that fashion they go into it with but one grim purpose—to kill, and to kill in the shortest possible space of time. Thus it was that Costigan's opening soon came. The pirate launched a particularly vicious kick, the dreaded "coup de sabot," which Costigan avoided by a lightning shift. It was a slight shift, barely enough to make the kicker miss, and two powerful hands closed upon that flying foot in midair like the sprung jaws of a bear-trap. Closed and ...
— Triplanetary • Edward Elmer Smith

... freely loose, besides shattering the bone, so that he was but in poor fighting trim; and I had time to get back to the gray—who stood snorting and panting, up to his knees in snow and rubbish, but without offering to stir—to draw my second pistol, and to give Isegrin—as the Germans call him—the coup de grace, before he could attain the friendly shelter of the dingle, to which with all due speed he was retreating. By this time all our comrades had assembled. Loud was the glee—boisterous the applause, which fell especially to me, who had performed with my own hand the glorious feat of slaying ...
— Warwick Woodlands - Things as they Were There Twenty Years Ago • Henry William Herbert (AKA Frank Forester)

... himself. They let her believe that she was the real power behind the throne. Her ambitions grew—she herself would be ruler—she gave it out that Claudius was insane. Finally she decided that the time was right for a "coup de grace." Claudius was absent from Rome, and Messalina wedded at high noon with young Silius, her lover. She was led to believe that the army would back her up, and proclaim her son, Brittanicus, Emperor, in which case, she herself and Silius would be the actual rulers. The wedding ...
— Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great Philosophers, Volume 8 • Elbert Hubbard

... a Silesian newspaper published an article sent from the front by a N.C.O., in which he says, "Men who are particularly tender-hearted give the French wounded the 'coup de grace' with a bullet, but the others cut and thrust as much as possible. Our enemies fought bravely ... whether they are slightly or badly wounded our brave Fusiliers spare the Fatherland as far as possible the expensive trouble of looking after numerous enemies. In the evening, with ...
— Their Crimes • Various

... again felt the pain in his hip and began to limp, as he had done for months after the wound. In the broad avenue leading to the main entrance new visions rose before him, made still more intense by the recollections of the coup d'etat evoked by the sight of Baudin's grave. At the right he saw the monument of Gottfried Cavaignac in the midst of the great common grave, into which all the nameless victims of the street fights were thrown in a horrible medley. This blood-stained bit of earth ...
— How Women Love - (Soul Analysis) • Max Simon Nordau

... morning by a coup-de-main, the whole affair was over in half an hour from the time the gate was blown open; there was, however, a good deal of firing afterwards, and some of the inhabitants even held out throughout the day, and caused almost as much loss as that which occurred in the storm. The affair took ...
— Journals of Travels in Assam, Burma, Bhootan, Afghanistan and The - Neighbouring Countries • William Griffith

... The crowd gasped, for as he passed the bays it was impossible to judge his speed accurately; and after the breath of astonishment the cheers broke in a wave. There was a confusion of emotion in Marianne. A victory for the chestnut would be a coup for her pocketbook when it came to buying the Coles horses, but it would be a distinct blow to her pride as a horsewoman. Moreover, there was that in the stallion which roused instinctive aversion. Hatred for Cordova sustained him, for ...
— Alcatraz • Max Brand

... swamped. Some one else had had the same idea. I had to pay for the goods, as well as other big outstanding bills, or go into bankruptcy. So I took the bonds. It wasn't easy. But there was nothing else to do....There were about ten thousand dollars left and I tried another coup. That failed too." ...
— The Sisters-In-Law • Gertrude Atherton

... political and industrial chaos in Russia followed the Lenine coup d' etat, which was a triumph, probably temporary, of extremists. A number of the commissioners appointed by the Lenine-Trotzky faction to carry on the government, gave up their posts within a few days, characterizing ...
— America's War for Humanity • Thomas Herbert Russell

... Bunker Hill," he could not have been more abashed than was Anthony, who glanced through the window at the dreary prospect, looked back again, and found that the sharp eyes once more looked straight ahead without the slightest light of triumph in his coup. Silence, apparently, did not in ...
— Trailin'! • Max Brand

... luck never deserted him. He was trying now perhaps to make at one coup sufficient to silence for a further space his enemy's tongue; the bets upon the odd trick alone amounted to a thousand or more. But he was too late. ...
— The Thin Red Line; and Blue Blood • Arthur Griffiths

... there is a distinct catalogue of them, and the funds left by their illustrious owner form the principal support of the library establishment. Bochart's portrait, with those of many other benefactors to the library, adorns the walls; suspended above the books: affording a very agreeable coup-d'oeil. Indeed the principal division of the library, the further end of which commands a pleasant prospect, is worthy of an establishment belonging to the capital of an empire. The kindness of M. Hebert, and of his assistant, rendered ...
— A Bibliographical, Antiquarian and Picturesque Tour in France and Germany, Volume One • Thomas Frognall Dibdin

... him that the places Namur and Liege were protected from a coup de main and that our field army of 100,000 men would be capable of intervention ...
— Current History, A Monthly Magazine - The European War, March 1915 • New York Times

... see ony thing aboot me to produce ony doubt o' my ability or my secrecy?" answered Geordie. "Nae man will coup wi' Peter Finlayson in ony expedition whar death, danger, or exposure are to be avoided, or whar ability to plan, an' quickness to execute, and cunnin' to conceal, are ...
— Wilson's Tales of the Borders and of Scotland, Volume VI • Various

... without it, the state is like a ship without a rudder, a balloon in mid-air. Now, the strength, the charm of the aristocracy lies in its antiquity, the only thing I could not create." It must be confessed that from an old Republican general, for the man who had sent Augereau to execute the coup d'tat of the 18th Fructidor, and who the 13th Vendmiaire, from the steps of the Church of Saint Roch had crushed the Paris conservatives, this was a very aristocratic way of talking, reminding one of the old rgime. In 1816 ...
— The Court of the Empress Josephine • Imbert de Saint-Amand

... am afraid that this wretched war will play the very deuce with our foreign friends. If you Germans do not give that crowned swindler, whose fall I have been looking for ever since the coup d'etat, such a blow as he will never recover from, I will never forgive you. Public opinion in England is not worth much, but at present, it is entirely against France. Even the "Times," which generally contrives to be ...
— The Life and Letters of Thomas Henry Huxley Volume 2 • Leonard Huxley

... which did not earn operating expenses, and by expending the proceeds in buying an extension to Chicago, which enabled it at last to secure the through traffic from the West for which it had been in large part originally designed. Its great coup came, however, in 1882, when the onward march of the Canadian Pacific and the bitter experience of fruitless rate wars led it to purchase its old rival, the Great Western, with its Michigan extensions. The construction ...
— The Railway Builders - A Chronicle of Overland Highways • Oscar D. Skelton

... covered, the executioner gave the signal. One would have thought a very few blows would have finished so frail a being, but he seemed as hard to kill as the venomous reptiles which must be crushed and cut to pieces before life is extinct, and the coup de grace was found necessary. The executioner uncovered his head and showed the confessor that the eyes were closed and that the heart had ceased to beat. The body was then removed from the cross, the hands and feet fastened ...
— CELEBRATED CRIMES, COMPLETE - DERUES • ALEXANDRE DUMAS, PERE

... chagrin, grimace, embarrasse, double entendre, equivoque, ecclaircissement, suitte, beveue, facon, penchant, coup ...
— The Works Of John Dryden, Volume 4 (of 18) - Almanzor And Almahide, Marriage-a-la-Mode, The Assignation • John Dryden

... he changes his disgraced name and goes out to Canada to make good. There, on the prairies, he puts in some hard honest work. But, in his haste to be rich, the Black Knight, as they do in chess, after moving straight, moved obliquely. In order to make a coup out of a Wall Street cinch he helped himself to the money of the bank of which he was cashier. Other people who shall be nameless have done this sort of thing before, and, after returning the "borrowed" cash, have enjoyed a stainless prosperity. But Michael, through a motor-car accident, just failed ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 159, October 13, 1920 • Various

... himself, but out of vanity, to show his courage, shows his folly; so that, if ill happen on it, all people will laugh at it. Pray tell him so much from Jones (Johnstone). If some could be catched making their coup d'essai on him, it will do much to frighten them from making any attempt on ...
— The History of England from the Accession of James II. - Volume 2 (of 5) • Thomas Babington Macaulay

... would point the shaft! The reproduction of her sister's face seemed to touch her to her very bosom's core. There is some fixed purpose in this cold-hearted woman's coming! Not a lingering annoyance, but some coup de main, a bolt to be launched ...
— A Fascinating Traitor • Richard Henry Savage

... with him a brown leather dispatch case. The Secret Service men, who had been keeping an eye on him, determined to get that case, because they knew from the way the doctor always held on to it, that it must contain something important. A wise member of the Service was chosen to make the coup. ...
— Winning a Cause - World War Stories • John Gilbert Thompson and Inez Bigwood

... 1913-21 will be found the recollections of a man who was successively Military Governor of Constantinople, Minister of Public Works and Naval Minister and who, with Enver Bey and Talaat Bey, formed the triumvirate which dictated Turkish policy and guided Turkey's fate after the coup d'etat of 1913. I believe these memoirs are of extraordinary interest and the greatest importance. They give the first and only account from the Turkish side of events in Turkey since 1913. The development of relations with Germany, France ...
— When Winter Comes to Main Street • Grant Martin Overton

... sole object in coming into the spider's parlor had been to make it possible for him to come out again in full view of all the guards and officers and military chauffeurs, that their suspicions might not be aroused when he put his contemplated coup to ...
— The Mad King • Edgar Rice Burroughs

... utility by the lines that came about his mouth. A brother in finance of some astuteness, who saw him scramble into his gharry, divined that with regard to a weighty matter in jute mill shares pending, Lindsay had decided upon a coup, and made his arrangements accordingly. He also went upon his way with a fresh impression of Lindsay's undeniable good looks, as sometimes in a coin new from the mint one is struck with the beauty of a die dulled by ...
— The Path of a Star • Mrs. Everard Cotes (AKA Sara Jeannette Duncan)

... Pinto returned to Mozambique for instructions, and in his absence Lieutenant Coutinho crossed the river, attacked the Makololo chiefs and sought to obtain possession of the Shire highlands by a coup de main. John Buchanan, the British vice-consul, lost no time in declaring the country under British protection, and his action was subsequently confirmed by Johnston on his return from a treaty-making expedition on Lake Nyasa. On the news of these events reaching Europe ...
— Project Gutenberg Encyclopedia

... control perceived in the aggression of the two northern lines a menace to its northwestern and Pacific coast connections. The Union Pacific leader, E. H. Harriman, resorted to an unexpected coup. He attempted to purchase the Northern Pacific, Burlington and all. A mysterious demand, set Northern Pacific shares soaring. The stock reached $1,000 a share and none was obtainable. Panic arose; bankers and brokers ...
— History of the United States, Volume 6 (of 6) • E. Benjamin Andrews

... these early days in September, while the illustrious General-in-Chief was meditating concluding the war by the assault of the city of Mexico, that Colonel Le Noir also resolved to bring his own private feud to an end, and ruin his enemy by a coup-de-diable. ...
— Capitola's Peril - A Sequel to 'The Hidden Hand' • Mrs. E.D.E.N. Southworth

... arrival of Miss Jarvis, to whom he had committed himself, prompted him to a speedy declaration, and the unlucky conversation of Mr. Holt brought about a probable detection of his gaming propensities, the colonel determined to get rid of his awkward situation and his debts by a coup-de-main. He accordingly eloped with ...
— Precaution • James Fenimore Cooper

... scared. I knew he was there on business—that he would be the first one to hear of Sears' coup. I spurred up to see if I couldn't prevent serious trouble, but when I drew near I pulled up: there was something in his face that made me keep out, made me understand that I was an outsider in ...
— Terry - A Tale of the Hill People • Charles Goff Thomson

... others, with axes, spades, and other implements, threw up earth, cut down trees, hastily labouring to establish such a defensive cover in the rear of the second barricade as might enable them to retain possession of it, in case the Castle was not carried by this coup-de-main. ...
— Old Mortality, Complete, Illustrated • Sir Walter Scott

... metallic voice of the banker, as he proclaims his "Rouge perd," or "Couleur gagne." People are too genteel at Hombourg-von-der-Hohe to scream, to yell, to fall into fainting fits, or go into convulsions, because they have lost four or five thousand francs or so in a single coup. ...
— The Gaming Table: Its Votaries and Victims - Volume I (of II) • Andrew Steinmetz

... in a way well timed. I doubt if we could have stayed the execution of Saint-Eustache's warrant even had we arrived earlier. But for effect—to produce a striking coup de theatre—we could not ...
— Bardelys the Magnificent • Rafael Sabatini

... worldly wisdom, satisfied to wield power without taking too large a place on the political stage, the Duc de Morny's popularity and peculiar position enabled him to be the go-between in the compromise that followed. As early as 1849 he was reported to have said to a friend: "Quand je coup se fera je vous en previens, c'est moi qui le ferai."* Another of his mots has often been quoted** and is most characteristic of the man: "S'il y a un coup de balai, je tacherai d'etre ...
— Maximilian in Mexico - A Woman's Reminiscences of the French Intervention 1862-1867 • Sara Yorke Stevenson

... profiteering in particular, but guilty simply as an inheritor. It might have been different if he had come into the money in reasonable instalments, say of five thousand pounds every six months. But a hundred thousand unearned increment at one coup...!) Fortunately the cronies were still in the smoking-room. He swept Bishop from the club, stealthily, swiftly. Bishop had a big motor-car waiting ...
— Mr. Prohack • E. Arnold Bennett

... capital of Warsaw follow. On July 19 a Petrograd dispatch to the London Morning Post reported that Emperor William had telegraphed his sister, the Queen of Greece, to the effect that he had "paralyzed Russia for at least six months to come" and was on the eve of "delivering a coup on the western front that will ...
— New York Times Current History; The European War, Vol 2, No. 5, August, 1915 • Various

... general, lead to a connexion of this with the problem of "human" Freedom, such an identification would seem to be unfair. This seems specially so when we read over carefully his remarks about the coup d'etat of the fundamental self in times of grave crisis. We cannot equate this with a purely biological freedom or vitality, or spontaneity. But in the light of the criticism which has been made, it will be well to consider, ...
— Bergson and His Philosophy • J. Alexander Gunn

... really believed in this "band of miscreants," and attributed the revolution, which he called a 'coup monte' (premeditated affair), to those wretches. His letters to Bunsen are ...
— Uarda • Georg Ebers

... "Thon was a brave coup you gave the soger in the street," she said. "You gripped him fine, the ugly devil. But you did na hurt him much. He was up and off when they got us dragged from him, as hard as ever he could lift a foot. ...
— The Northern Iron - 1907 • George A. Birmingham

... boys shone, as the implication reached them. The smugglers evidently had obtained possession of a sub chaser and wearing U. S. naval uniforms had carried out a bold coup d'etat, although for what purpose could not be seen at the time. It looked as if there were a fair prospect of action, and all ...
— The Radio Boys with the Revenue Guards • Gerald Breckenridge

... the bank against some terrible player, who was matching some thousands out of his millions against our all which was there on the baize! when we engaged that daring Alexis Kossloffsky, and won seven thousand louis in a single coup, had we lost, we should have been beggars the next day; when HE lost, he was only a village and a few hundred serfs in pawn the worse. When, at Toeplitz, the Duke of Courland brought fourteen lacqueys, each with four bags of florins, and challenged ...
— Barry Lyndon • William Makepeace Thackeray

... designated the palace as the official residence for the presidents of the French Republic. Three years after, on the night of the first of December, as the last preparations were being made by Louis Bonaparte for the Coup d' Etat and the final strangling of the young republic, the residence of the president was transferred to the Tuileries, and the palace of the Faubourg Saint Honore was again left without a tenant, and served only to give hospitality from time to ...
— Royal Palaces and Parks of France • Milburg Francisco Mansfield

... and in all his motions. 'I know,' said I, 'that your Majesty may still keep the sword drawn, but with whom, and against whom? Defeat has chilled the courage of every one; the army is still in the greatest confusion. Nothing is to be expected from Paris, and the coup d'etat of the 18th Brumaire cannot be renewed.'—'That thought,' he replied, stopping, 'is far from my mind. I will hear nothing more about myself. But poor France!' At that moment Savary and Caulaincourt entered, and having drawn a faithful picture of the exasperation ...
— The Memoirs of Napoleon Bonaparte • Bourrienne, Constant, and Stewarton

... larges avenues sont perces eux-memes d'une multitude de rues et ruelles ... qui toutes a peu pres sont orientees N. et S., E. et O. Une seule volonte a evidemment preside a ce plan, et jamais edilite n'a eu a executer d'un seul coup aussi ...
— The Travels of Marco Polo Volume 1 • Marco Polo and Rustichello of Pisa

... significantly. The banking system also collapsed, and Ecuador defaulted on its external debt later that year. The currency depreciated by some 70% in 1999, and, on the brink of hyperinflation, the MAHAUD government announced it would dollarize the economy. A coup, however, ousted MAHAUD from office in January 2000, and after a short-lived junta failed to garner military support, Vice President Gustavo NOBOA took over the presidency. In March 2000, Congress approved a series ...
— The 2004 CIA World Factbook • United States. Central Intelligence Agency

... against some terrible player, who was matching some thousands out of his millions against our all, which was there on the baize! When we engaged that daring Alexis Kossloffsky, and won seven thousand louis on a single coup, had we lost we should have been beggars the next day; when he lost, he was only a village and a few hundred serfs in pawn the worse. When at Toeplitz the Duke of Courland brought fourteen lacqueys, each ...
— Thackeray • Anthony Trollope

... by a door in the middle. There were open coup82s and side seats which became plank beds when necessary. We slept in three tiers on the bare boards. I had a very decent place on the second tier, and, by a bit of good luck, the topmost bench over my head was occupied only ...
— Russia in 1919 • Arthur Ransome

... classes, the gentry and the capitalists, clearly failed in the psychological test at the critical time. This failure is amply attested by the manner in which they submitted practically without a fight after the Bolshevist coup d'etat. ...
— A History of Trade Unionism in the United States • Selig Perlman

... on the battle of St. Quentin, and probably soon came to believe he had done yeoman service there. The childlike credulity of the people is a great temptation to kings. It is very likely that after the coup-d'etat of December, the trembling puppet who had sat shivering over his fire in the palace of the Elysee while Morny and Fleury and St. Arnaud and the rest of the cool gamblers were playing their last desperate stake on that fatal night, really persuaded himself that ...
— Castilian Days • John Hay

... Representative Baudin was killed on the barricade in the Faubourg Saint Antoine on December 2, 1852, during Louis Bonaparte's coup d'Etat. ...
— The Memoirs of Victor Hugo • Victor Hugo

... his agitation; the husband, as commander of the district where Nekhludoff's estates were situated, informed the latter of a special meeting of the local governing body, and asked him to be present without fail, and donner un coup d'epaule in the important measures to be submitted concerning the schools and roads, and that the reactionary party was expected to ...
— The Awakening - The Resurrection • Leo Nikoleyevich Tolstoy

... The first coup d'oeil, as the sun slid into the position described, impressed me very much as I have been impressed, when a boy, by the concluding scene of some well-arranged theatrical spectacle or melodrama. Not even the ...
— The Works of Edgar Allan Poe - Volume 2 (of 5) of the Raven Edition • Edgar Allan Poe



Words linked to "Coup" :   takeover, countercoup, coup de main, October Revolution, putsch, coup de theatre, coup d'etat, success, coup d'oeil



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