at/in one fell swoop
at one fell swoop
All at once, with a single decisive or powerful action. When the economy crashed, thousands lost their jobs, their homes, and their pensions at one fell swoop.
See also: fell, one, swoop
in one fell swoop
All at once, with a single decisive or powerful action. When the economy crashed, thousands lost their jobs, their homes, and their pensions in one fell swoop.
See also: fell, one, swoop
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.
at one fell swoop
and in one fell swoopFig. in a single incident; as a single event. (This phrase preserves the old word fell, meaning "terrible" or "deadly.") The party guests ate up all the snacks at one fell swoop. When the stock market crashed, many large fortunes were wiped out in one fell swoop.
See also: fell, one, swoop
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.
in (or at) one fell swoop
all in one go.This expression comes from Macduff's appalled reaction to the murder of his wife and children in Shakespeare's Macbeth: ‘Oh hell-kite!…All my pretty chickens, and their dam At one fell swoop?’
See also: fell, one, swoop
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary
at/in one fell ˈswoop
with a single action or movement; all at the same time: Only a foolish politician would promise to lower the rate of inflation and reduce unemployment at one fell swoop.See also: fell, one, swoop
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary
at one fell swoop
A single operation, often a violent one. This term was coined by Shakespeare, who used the metaphor of a hell-kite (probably a vulture) killing chickens for the murder of Macduff’s wife and children: “Oh, Hell-Kite! All? What, all my pretty chickens and their dam at one fell swoop?” (Macbeth, 4.3). The adjective fell was Old English for “fierce” or “savage.”
See also: fell, one, swoop
The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer
- at one fell swoop
- in one fell swoop
- one fell swoop, in
- swoop
- at a (single) blow
- at a (single) stroke
- at a blow
- in one blow
- at a/one stroke
- at one stroke