coups

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of coup.

   Historians traced a pattern linking economic collapse to the region's repeated coups.

   Two failed coups in a year left the army deeply divided.

   Note

   One plural serves every meaning the singular carries, so the surrounding words decide which coups are meant. Beside army, colonel or failed, it means coups d'état. In a bridge book it means the declarer's named strategies for winning extra tricks, such as the Bath coup. At a roulette table it means single rolls of the wheel. The same spelling also serves as the verb's he-and-she form.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of coup.

   Note

   Two very different actions share this form. The political verb is informal when it takes an object (a colonel coups the cabinet) and plain when it stands alone. The other verb means tipping out a load, as from a wheelbarrow. In Northern England and Scotland it can also mean to barter or exchange. Unlike the noun plural, it follows a singular subject.

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