Definition of "coup de grâce" []

• The stroke of mercy with which an executioner ends by death the sufferings of the condemned; hence, a decisive, finishing stroke. (noun)

Gnu Collaboartive International Dictionary of English: licensed under The Code Project Open License (CPOL)

• "I recollect an account of a concert given at Clonmel several years ago, in which the eloquent local journalist said of one of the amateur lady singers, after the loftiest eulogy, 'but it was in her last song that Miss – – gave the coup de grace to her performance.'"
• "T.H. Morgan does not hesitate to say that Mendel's laws give the final coup de grace to the doctrine of Natural Selection, and others consider that his views, if finally proved to be correct, will at least demand a profound modification in the theories associated with the name of"
• "And he, Thanet, was about to deliver the coup de grace — no, not a coup de grace, because he wouldn't be putting Mrs Redman out of her misery but increasing it tenfold."