one fell swoop

WOTD - 29 March 2010    

English

Etymology

After Shakespeare, in Macbeth, act iv, scene 3, where Macduff learns his wife and entire family are murdered:

Ro. Wife, Children, Seruants, all that could be found. […]

Macd. […] All my pretty ones?
Did you ſay All? Oh Hell-Kite! All?
What, All my pretty Chickens, and their Damme
At one fell ſwoope?

Noun

one fell swoop (uncountable)

1. (idiomatic) One stroke; one action or event with many results.

   Changing the oil lubricates the engine and removes debris in one fell swoop.

   • 1605, William Shakespeare, Macbeth, act iv, scene 3

     What, All my pretty Chickens, and their Damme
     At one fell ſwoope?

   • 1922, James Joyce, Ulysses Episode 16

     ...they might be hanging about there or simply marauders ready to decamp with whatever boodle they could in one fell swoop at a moment's notice, your money or your life, leaving you there to point a moral, gagged and garrotted.

Translations

one stroke; one action or event with many results

Catalan: de cop i volta (ca), tot de cop (ca) Finnish: samalla kertaa (fi), yhdellä kertaa (fi), kertaheitolla (fi) French: d'un seul coup (fr) German: in einem Rutsch (de) Romanian: dintr-o lovitură (ro)

Russian: одним махом (odním máχom) Spanish: de repente (es) Turkish: aniden (tr), birdenbire (tr), ansızın (tr)

See also

• kill two birds with one stone