ONE FELL SWOOP, IN Definition & Meaning

one fell swoop, in

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.”
see one fell swoop.

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As the leader of The Beach Boys, he elevated American music and the notion of recording artistry in one fell swoop in the mid-1960s.

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The Angels, who still have to fill the role of bench coach, will likely announce their 2020 coaching staff in one fell swoop in November.

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Perhaps U.S. lawmakers should just stop trying for “tax reform,” the idea that the system can be fixed in one fell swoop in a repeat of the bipartisan magic of 1986, said Jared Bernstein, a former economic adviser to Vice President Joe Biden.

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You can play that withdrawal from Hoth — turning it into a canonically correct victory, or helping the Empire crush the Rebel scum in one fell swoop — in Star Wars: Battlefront.

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“In one fell swoop, in 10 minutes, we got the image, we knew: Everything changed.”

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in one ear and out the other in one piece

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one fell swoop, in

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