coupe sombre
French edit
Etymology edit
From woodcutting; the idea being that the forest is still dense and dark, because it was only lightly felled.
Pronunciation edit
Noun edit
coupe sombre f (plural coupes sombres)
- (forestry) light felling, thinning of the trees
- (sometimes proscribed, figuratively, chiefly in the plural) drastic cuts
- faire des coupes sombres dans quelque chose ― to make drastic cuts, to make swingeing cuts, to make substantial cutbacks
Usage notes edit
- This idiom is often misunderstood to mean "heavy felling" (for which coupe claire would be the right term), whence the figurative sense.