Skip to content
ontologydriven
Sign out

Dictionary

Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.

at one stroke en · ADP

Meanings

  1. (qualifier:literal) With a single blow, effort, or act.
    • I should be ready to do the job without being paid for it, though I don't say it is not sweeter to get both gold and revenge at one stroke. 1898, G. A. Henty, “On A Mexican Ranche”, in Yule Logs: Longmans' Christmas Annual:
    • I made up my mind that a man confined to his room by inflammation of the lungs, a fellow who had only two wishes left in the world, to see a particular woman, and then to die, could neatly accomplish those two wishes at one stroke by taking this journey in the rain. 1895, Thomas Hardy, chapter 9, in Jude the Obscure:
  2. (broadly, figuratively) At once, immediately; in an instant.
    • . . . with the wind of ruin in his hair, Soul sprang full-statured from the broken flesh, And at one stroke he lived the whole of life. 1909, Edith Wharton, “A Torchbearer”, in Artemis to Actaeon and Other Verses:
    • At one stroke his dashing raiment gave him high superiority over Johnnie Watson and other rivals who might loom. 1916, Booth Tarkington, chapter 7, in Seventeen:
    • In a blaze of creativity during 10 days in 1950 photographing the Paris collections, he became at one stroke one of the major fashion photographers of the century. 1997 December 14, Vicki Goldberg, “Photography View: One Eye on Art, the Other on Commerce”, in New York Times, retrieved 01 Jan 2014:
    • [T]he whole object of the poem is to show what infinities of spiritual good and evil a current and sordid story may contain. When once this is realised, it explains at one stroke the innumerable facts about the work. 1903, Gilbert Keith Chesterton, chapter 7, in Robert Browning:

Forms

SpellingFeaturesLabelsSource
at a stroke alternative lexicographic
in one stroke alternative lexicographic
at a single stroke alternative lexicographic

Relateds

at one blow · at one blast

Synonyms

all of a sudden (at once, immediately, in an instant) · in one fell swoop (with a single blow, effort, or act) · suddenly (at once, immediately, in an instant) · in one fell swoop (at once, immediately, in an instant)

Translations (5)

es de un plumazo (with a single effort or act) · pt de uma tacada (with a single effort or act) · ru одни́м ма́хом (with a single effort or act) · pt de uma tacada só (with a single effort or act) · de auf einen Schlag (with a single effort or act)