/ˌkɪl ˌtuː ˈbɜːdz wɪð ˌwʌn ˈstəʊn/
English idiom, everyday. To get two things done with a single action.
Draft Not yet checked by a native English speaker.
How do people use Kill two birds with one stone
?
Everyday English, fine at work and at home, and nobody pictures any actual birds. It bends like any verb: “I killed two birds with one stone”, “that way we kill two birds with one stone”. People often shorten it to “two birds, one stone” once the idea is clear.
Also said two birds with one stone
Kill two birds with one stone
in real sentences
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I killed two birds with one stone.
Tatoeba, sentence by keira_n, CC BY 2.0 FR
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That way we kill two birds with one stone.
Tatoeba, sentence by AlanF_US, CC BY 2.0 FR
Where does Kill two birds with one stone
come from?
English Wiktionary credits the earliest known use to John Bramhall, Bishop of Derry, in a 1646 letter to the philosopher Thomas Hobbes that was printed in 1656. An older English saying with the same idea, “stop two gaps with one bush”, already existed. Nobody knows whether Bramhall coined the stone version or wrote down something people were already saying.
Mistakes learners make with Kill two birds with one stone
Bringing in another language’s animals. German speakers often say “kill two flies with one swat” (from “zwei Fliegen mit einer Klappe schlagen”), which English listeners will puzzle over. In English it’s birds and a stone.
Other English idioms like Kill two birds with one stone
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?
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