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. In later uses of the expression, the force of the metaphor is reduced or lost.

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

• Bashkir: һә тигәнсе (hä tigänse), күҙ асып йомғансы (küð asïp yomğansï)
• Catalan: de cop i volta, tot de cop
• Finnish: samalla kertaa, yhdellä kertaa, kertaheitolla (fi)
• French: d'un seul coup (fr)
• German: in einem Rutsch, mit einem Schlag (de)

• Romanian: dintr-o lovitură
• Russian: одни́м ма́хом (odním máxom)
• Spanish: de repente (es)
• Turkish: aniden (tr), birdenbire (tr), ansızın (tr)

See also

• at one stroke
• kill two birds with one stone