fell stroke

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.

And then – boom! – with one fell stroke of an adapter’s arbitrariness, Mr. Kelly altered the play’s ending in a way that crudely shrinks and simplifies its intentions.

From New York Times • Aug. 2, 2010

Not even physicians were spared; and those who escaped trembled in anticipation of the fell stroke.

From Beulah by Evans, Augusta J. (Augusta Jane)

See all the artifice of civilisation swept away at one fell stroke, and behold your gentleman, transformed in an instant into a beast, with all a beast's primeval qualities.

From A Spinner in the Sun by Reed, Myrtle

Here was all the solid foundation knocked from under him at one fell stroke, as if by a cannon.

From The "Genius" by Dreiser, Theodore

Something worse than eating with his knife must ostracize a man, and something no greater than spitting on the sidewalk should accomplish the feat at one fell stroke.

From Etiquette by Morton, Agnes H.