coup

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun A brilliantly executed stratagem; a triumph.
• noun A coup d'état.
• noun A sudden appropriation of leadership or power; a takeover.
• noun Among certain Native American peoples, a feat of bravery performed in battle, especially the touching of an enemy's body without causing injury.
• idiom (count coup) Among certain Native American peoples, to ceremoniously recount one's exploits in battle.

from The Century Dictionary.

• To barter; buy and sell, as horses or cattle.
• To cut; slash: in the extracts, with reference to shoes ornamentally slashed.
• To upset; overturn; tilt over; turn upside down; dump: as, to coup the cart.
• To die.
• To give or exchange blows; fight.
• To upset; be overturned; fall or tumble over.
• To swoop.
• noun An obsolete or dialectal (Scotch) form of cup.
• noun A blow; a stroke.
• noun A trick; a snare.
• noun The act of upsetting or overturning, or state of being overturned; the act of dumping.
• noun A tumble; a fall.
• noun A fault in a seam of coal.
• noun A cart-load.
• noun A stroke; a brilliant play; in banking games the decision of all the bets by one event.
• noun A stroke or blow, especially a sudden stroke, implying promptness and force: a French word used in English in various French phrases, or singly, with conscious reference to its French use.
• noun Specifically, with reference to the north western tribes of the Indians of North America, a stroke that captures the weapon or horse of an enemy; hence, victory over an enemy.
• noun A coup d'état; a stroke of policy. See below.
• noun Specifically— Milit., that talent for rapid observation and generalization by which an officer is enabled by a glance to estimate the advantages and disadvantages of a field of battle for attack and defense, and thus to post his troops without delay so as to make the most of it.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• intransitive verb To make a coup.
• noun A sudden stroke delivered with promptness and force; -- used also in various ways to convey the idea of an unexpected, clever, and successful tactic or stratagem.
• noun Cant A single roll of the wheel at roulette, or a deal at rouge et noir.
• noun Among some tribes of North American Indians especially of the Great Plains, the act of striking or touching an enemy in warfare with the hand or at close quarters, as with a short stick, in such a manner as by custom to entitle the doer to count the deed an act of bravery; hence, any of various other deeds recognized by custom as acts of bravery or honor.
• noun the stroke of mercy with which an executioner ends by death the sufferings of the condemned; hence, a decisive, finishing stroke.
• noun (Mil.) a sudden and unexpected movement or attack.
• noun (Med.) a sunstroke. See Sunstroke.
• noun (Politics) 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.
• noun (Mil.) The faculty or the act of comprehending at a glance the weakness or strength of a military position, of a certain arrangement of troops, the most advantageous position for a battlefield, etc.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• noun A quick, brilliant, and highly successful act; a triumph.
• noun A coup d'état.
• noun By extension, a takeover of one group by another.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• noun a brilliant and notable success
• noun a sudden and decisive change of government illegally or by force