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beggar description

Idioms  
  1. Defy or outdo any possible description, as in The stage set was so elaborate, it beggared description. This term, alluding to the idea that words are insufficient to do something justice, was already used by Shakespeare in Antony and Cleopatra (2:2), “For her own person It beggared all description.”


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 from sun rise to sun set, I passed through scenes and experiences that beggar description.

From Slate • Oct. 23, 2019

The acoustics are so complex that they beggar description.

From Time Magazine Archive

There were snores that beggar description, that seemed to express every temperament and every passion of the human soul.

From Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science Volume 12, No. 28, July, 1873 by Various

But the pomp of carriage, the circumstance of gait which he assumed, the manner of the man beggar description.

From The Brother of Daphne by Yates, Dornford

As one courier after another returned with this same disheartening report, the terror and despair were such as to beggar description.

From Elsie at Nantucket by Finley, Martha