Kill two birds with one stone Neutral

To accomplish two goals or solve two problems by means of a single action.

It’s a favorable, almost congratulatory phrase, used to praise efficiency rather than to describe something being done carelessly.

The phrase is often attributed to the philosopher Thomas Hobbes, and it’s true that a 1656 exchange with Bishop John Bramhall contains an early instance — “T. H. thinks to kill two birds with one stone, and satisfy two arguments” — which the Oxford English Dictionary lists among its earliest citations. However, this was not the very first use: a 1632 political tract about conflicts involving Spain and Algiers already describes a military commander who “came resolved to kill two birds with one stone,” predating the Hobbes exchange by about two decades. The literal act of hunting two birds with a single thrown stone was likely never a common or especially skillful feat in real life, which suggests the phrase functioned from the start as a vivid hypothetical image of efficiency rather than a description of an actual hunting technique. Some etymologists also connect it to an older English proverb, recorded by John Heywood in 1546, about stopping “two gaps with one bush” — a different image expressing the same underlying idea of solving two problems at once, which may have helped the “two birds” version take hold once it appeared.

By carpooling to the conference, we killed two birds with one stone — saving money and catching up on old times.

Doing the grocery shopping on my lunch break kills two birds with one stone.

The manager scheduled the training session right after the team meeting to kill two birds with one stone.

A: Why did you pick that gym? B: It’s close to work and has a pool, so I’m killing two birds with one stone.