Definition of "countercoup" []

• A sudden overthrow of a government that gained power by a coup d'état. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Eisenhower authorized the CIA to cooperate with the British in an operation that was actually a countercoup because the Mossadegh government had forced the Shah of Iran to abdicate."
• "But army hard-liners, led by Mr. Ioannidis, staged a successful countercoup on Nov. 25, 1973, and ruled Greece with increasing harshness and incompetence for the next eight months."
• "Dimitrios Ioannidis, 87, the feared security chief who led a countercoup against Greece's military leaders and provoked Turkey's invasion of Cyprus in 1974, has died."