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Definition 2024
in_one_fell_swoop
one fell swoop
English
Noun
- (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?
- What, All my pretty Chickens, and their Damme
- 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