‖ grand coup
(grɑ̃ ku)
[Fr.: see coup n.3]
1. A great and important stroke or hit; a bold and successful effort.
| 1813 Byron Let. to Moore 22 Aug. in Moore Life (1832) II. 234, I hope you are going on with your grand coup—pray do—or that damned Lucien Buonaparte will beat us all. 1856 C. F. Adams in Life & Wks. J. Adams I. 352 Justly was it denominated by one who had spent his life in the diplomatic service, a ‘grand coup’. 1883 Standard 17 Sept. 5/2 (Stanford), [The police] then make a grand coup all at once. |
2. Whist and Bridge. The getting rid of a superfluous trump by ruffing a winning card from the opposite hand.
| 1874 ‘Cavendish’ Whist (ed. 10) 130 Sometimes..a player has a trump too many. To get rid of this trump..is to play the grand coup. 1939 N. de V. Hart Bridge Players' Bedside Bk. xxxvii. 116 This ruffing of a winner to use up an embarrassing trump constituted the Grand Coup. 1952 I. Macleod Bridge xiv. 169 Grand Coup... It is a simple exercise in trump reduction and the fact that you trump winners alone distinguishes it from its humbler cousin the trump coup. 1964 Official Encycl. Bridge 222/2 Grand coup, a play by which declarer deliberately shortens his trump holding by ruffing a winner in order to achieve a finessing position over an adverse trump holding in an end position. |