one fell swoop

Meaning

Noun

• One stroke; one action or event that achieves or accomplishes many results.

Origin

• 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.