Definitions
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
- n. Alternative form of coup d'état.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English
- n. 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.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- n. a sudden and decisive change of government illegally or by force
Etymologies
Examples
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And whenever the crisis became more acute, all the Quidnuncs of Berlin shook their heads and said, “Now we shall have a Bismarck Ministry, and that will be a coup d'etat and the overthrow of the Constitution.”
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It was as if a Republican writer, after the coup d'etat of the 16th May, 1877, had warned the French against electing extreme Republicans, and had echoed the Marshal-President's advice to give their votes to moderate men of all parties.
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On May 20, 1968, the eighth coup d'etat attempt against Dr. Duvalier began with a B-25 flying over the capital, Port-au-Prince, and dropping an explosive, which blew one more hole in an eroded road.
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It was no time for scruples; the coup d'etat would be legitimised afterwards by universal suffrage;
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Following a frenzied battle with an unusually hard-to-slay vampire, an exhausted Vixen collapses in a moonlit glen on Midsummer's Eve, only to wake in the Land of Faerie, where she encounters Robin Goodfellow, a.k.a. Puck, who explains that he has recruited her to save Oberon's fairy kingdom from a coup d'etat organized by the scheming yet seductive Titania (who bears a suspicious resemblance to the Duchess).
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Narby looked squarely at Ertz. Ertz.had not thought the matter through; he realized now that the question was very pertinent, if the coup d'etat was not to be followed by a bloody scramble for power.
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