# one fell swoop

> English word · Noun

## Definitions
1. One stroke; one action or event that achieves or accomplishes many results.

## 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 Damme
At 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.

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-09-03.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/one-fell-swoop