one fell swoop, in
Idioms-
Also at one fell swoop. All at once, in a single action, as in This law has lifted all the controls on cable TV in one fell swoop. This term was used and probably invented by Shakespeare in Macbeth (4:3), where the playwright likens the murder of Macduff's wife and children to a hawk swooping down on defenseless prey. Although fell here means “cruel” or “ruthless,” this meaning has been lost in the current idiom, where it now signifies “sudden.”
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see one fell swoop.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
"Everything collapsed in one fell swoop," Natalia Kryvogub, a 32-year-old relative, told AFP.
From Barron's • Feb. 13, 2026
Such a feat would be hard to attempt without the billions of dollars in capital an initial public offering could deliver in one fell swoop.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 21, 2026
In an emergency scenario, it’s certainly within the realm of possibility that you could rack up the equivalent of an entire year’s worth of Medigap premiums in one fell swoop.
From MarketWatch • Oct. 29, 2025
However the clock change will bring sunset forward by an hour in one fell swoop which may come as a shock to the system.
From BBC • Oct. 11, 2025
On April 12,1961, Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became in one fell swoop the first human in space and the first human to orbit Earth.
From "Hidden Figures" by Margot Lee Shetterly
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
