at one blast

English

WOTD – 7 March 2018

Etymology

From Middle English at one blaste.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ət wʌn ˈblɑːst/, /ət wɒn ˈblɑːst/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ət wʌn ˈblæst/

Adverb

at one blast (not comparable)

1. (figuratively) At once, at the same moment in time. [from 1379]
   • 1606 February 5, [Edmund Sawyer], “From the Earl of Salisbury to Sir Charles Cornwallis”, in Memorials of Affairs of State in the Reigns of Q. Elizabeth and K. James I. Collected (Chiefly) from the Original Papers of the Right Honourable Sir Ralph Winwood, Kt. sometime One of the Principal Secretaries of State. Comprehending likewise the Negotiations of Sir Henry Neville, Sir Charles Cornwallis, Sir Dudley Carleton, Sir Thomas Edmondes, Mr. [William] Trumbull, Mr. Cottington, and Others, at the Courts of France and Spain, and in Holland, Venice, &c. Wherein the Principal Transactions of those Times are Faithfully Related, and the Policies and Intrigues of those Courts at Large Discover’d. The Whole Digested in an Exact Series of Time. To which are Added Two Tables: One of the Letters, the Other of the Principal Matters, volume II, London: Printed for W[illiam] B[owyer] for T. Ward, in the Inner-Temple-Lane, published 1725, →OCLC, page 291:

     For when Men ſhall obſerve the Nature of the Gun-Powder Treaſon, that it aymed at no leſs than the Deſtruction of the whole State at one blaſte; that the Contrivers were all Papiſts; that the pryme Hope of their Support was in the Engliſh Forces that ſerved the Archdukes, for which divers Captains there were prepared; he muſt needs conceive the King here to be unworthy of the eminent Throne in which Almighty God hath placed him as a potent Monarche over ſoe many Kingdoms and People, […]

   • 1706, [John Rushworth], “The Speaker’s Speech to the King [marginal note]”, in Historical Collections from the Year 1638. to the Year 1641. Abridg’d and Improv’d. [...] With a Particular and More Methodical Account of the Trial of the Earl of Strafford than has been yet Publish’d, volume III, London: [s.n.], →OCLC, page 248:

     [W]e can't without wonder remember that horrid Invention projected in this place, but thanks be to God diſappointed, wherein there was not Reverence to the ſacred Bones of Princes, but all were at one blaſt to be offer'd up to Moloch.

   • 1726, [Daniel Defoe], “Of the Power of the Devil at the Time of the Creation of this World; and whether it has Not been farther Straitn’d and Limited since that Time, and what Shifts and Stratagems He is Obliged to Make Use of to Compass His Designs upon Mankind”, in The Political History of the Devil, as well Ancient as Modern: In Two Parts, part I (Containing a State of the Devil’s Circumstances, [...]), London: Printed for T. Warner, at the Black Boy in Pater-noster Row, →OCLC, page 97:

     [A]s he [the Devil] is the Prince of the Power of the Air, taking the Air there for the Elementary World, how eaſily could he, at one Blaſt, ſweep all the Surface of the Earth into the Sea, or drive weighty immenſe Surges of the Ocean over the whole Plane of the Earth, and deluge the Globe at once with a Storm?

   • 1804, Robert Beatson, “Mediterranean”, in Naval and Military Memoirs of Great Britain, from 1727 to 1783. [...] In Six Volumes, 2nd edition, volume I, London: Printed for Longman, Hurst, Rees and Orme, No. 39. Paternoster-Row; W. J. and J. Richardson, Royal Exchange; Edinburgh: A. Constable and Co.; Aberdeen: A. Brown, →OCLC, page 203:

     When the dreadful effects of this infernal device [the Ann galley fire-ship] are attended to, and that it is the means, when employed, of plunging a number of gallant men at one blaſt into eternity, who is there but muſt feel an inexpreſſible pleaſure at its miſcarriage?

2. (literally) With one firing of a cannon or firearm; especially one whose ammunition is shotgun shot or grape shot, such that the multiple pieces of shot from one firing hit multiple birds or multiple soldiers.
   • 1898, Henryk Sienkiewicz, translated by Samuel Augustus Binion, Pan Michael (Pan Volodiyovski): A Historical Tale:

     Cannon, charged with grape, laid the men as flat as a pavement, exactly as a mighty wind levels standing grain at one blast.

Synonyms

• all at once
• simultaneously

Translations

at once, at the same moment in time

• German: auf einen Schlag
• Malay: sambil menyelam minum air
• Spanish: de un plumazo (es)

See also

• at one blow
• at one stroke
• kill two birds with one stone