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Definition 2024


one_fell_swoop

one fell swoop

English

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.

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