Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
Usage examples of "master-stroke".
And there rose in his fancy such a pleasing and gorgeous picture of himself in the panoply of the North, hurling a hammer skywards amidst the plaudits of his clan and the ravished murmurs of the ladies, that he could not but congratulate himself upon this last master-stroke of policy.
The French sought to make a master-stroke at immediate achievement and they incurred counterrevolutions and delays.