coup de savate

From French coup de savate (literally “strike of the old shoe”).

• IPA^(key): /kuː də səˈvɑːt/
• Rhymes: -ɑːt

coup de savate (plural coups de savate)

1. a kick with the flat of the foot
   • 1901, Honoré de Balzac, Scenes from a Courtesan's Life‎^[1], Avil Publishing Company, page 169:

     Europe, by a back-handed slap on Contenson's cheek, sent him sprawling to measure his length on the carpet, and with all the more effect because at the same time she caught his leg with the sharp kick known to those who practise the art as a coup de savate.

   • 1914, Louis Joseph Vance, chapter II, in The Lone Wolf‎^[2], A. L. Burt Company, pages 19-20:

     And for twenty seconds, while the crowd milled slowly through the narrow exit, he was as near to betraying himself as he had ever been nearer, for he had marked down the point on Roddy's jaw where his first blow would fall, and just where to plant a coup-de-savate most surely to incapacitate the minion of the Prefecture; and all the while was looking the two over with a manner of the most calm and impersonal curiosity.

   • 1920, Charles à Court Repington, chapter XXXVI, in The First World War, 1914-1918 Volume II‎^[3], Constable and Company Ltd, page 387:

     Saturday, Sept. 7. I hear that when Balfour asked Foch what he meant to do, the Generalissimo spoke no word, but threw himself into a fighting attitude, hit out hard with his right fist, then hard with his left, and then gave the coup de savate with his right and left leg in turn ! It is quite like him !