coups de grâce
Merciful killing blows
Coups de grâce is the plural of coup de grâce, the French term for a final blow that ends suffering—originally the death stroke given to a mortally wounded person or animal.
The phrase extends to any decisive action that finishes something off: The scandal delivered the coups de grâce to several political careers simultaneously.
- ritual sacrificeKilling as religious devotion
- last ritesSacrament for the dying
- euthanasiaDeliberate death for relief
- mercy killingPainless death for suffering
- pulling the plugEnding something definitively
execution · fatal shot · closure · relief · surgical strike · culmination · final act · termination · final blow · denouement · compassion · kindness · moral dilemma · last straw · resolution · conclusion · ethical debate · solace
coups de grâcetorture
Deliberate infliction of suffering
slow death · death by a thousand cuts · twisting the knife · torment · cruel and unusual punishment
coups de grâceprolonging
Extending in time
life support · dragging out · rescue · resuscitation · revival
coups de grâcesadism
Pleasure from inflicting pain
cruelty · brutalization · mercilessness · vivisection · gratuitous violence
coup, coups, grace, graces, graced, graceful, gracefully, graceless, gracefulness