one fell swoop

English

WOTD – 29 March 2010

Etymology

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

Ro. Wife, Children, Servants, 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?

The imagery is of a bird of prey ("hell-kite") ransacking a whole nest at one blow, fell meaning "terrible, cruel, savage." In later uses of the expression, the force of the metaphor is reduced or lost.

Pronunciation

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

Noun

one fell swoop

1. (idiomatic) One stroke; one action or event that achieves or accomplishes many results.

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

   • 1922 February, James Joyce, Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, […], OCLC 560090630:

     , 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

• Bashkir: һә тигәнсе (hä tigänse), күҙ асып йомғансы (küð asıp yomğansı)
• Catalan: de cop i volta, tot de cop
• Finnish: yhdellä iskulla, kertaheitolla (fi)
• French: d'un seul coup (fr), d’un coup d’un seul (fr)
• German: in einem Rutsch, mit einem Schlag (de)
• Hebrew: אִבְחַת חֶרֶב‎ (he) f (ivẖát ẖérev)
• Italian: in un colpo solo
• Japanese: 一撃 (ja) (ichigeki), 一挙 (ja) (ikkyo), 一気 (ja) (ikki)
• Polish: za jednym zamachem
• Portuguese: de uma só vez, de uma só tacada
• Romanian: dintr-o lovitură
• Russian: одни́м ма́хом (ru) (odním máxom)
• Spanish: de repente (es)
• Turkish: aniden (tr), birdenbire (tr), ansızın (tr)

See also

• swoop
• at one stroke
• kill two birds with one stone
• in one foul swoop

Anagrams

• one swell foop