one fell swoop

== English == === 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 DammeAt 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 === === Noun === one fell swoop (idiomatic) One stroke; one action or event that achieves or accomplishes many results. , 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 ==== === See also === Gordian knot swoop at one stroke kill two birds with one stone in one foul swoop === Anagrams === one swell foop