beat all

Idioms

Surpass anything, especially in a strange or amazing way, as in Adam and his cousin Eve eloped—doesn't that beat all! This phrase appears to have replaced beat the Dutch. It is often used in a negative construction, as in the example. [Slang; first half of 1800s] Also see to beat the band.

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.

The earnings beat all boils down to the artificial-intelligence boom, which has driven up demand for data and hard drives.

From Barron's • Jan. 28, 2026

“We beat all the teams we played and no one’s gone undefeated to win CIF — these girls are the first to accomplish that,” Ong said.

From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 9, 2025

Given Watson had shot 65-65 over the weekend in Turnberry with Nicklaus shooting 65-66, it was the compliment to beat all compliments.

From BBC • Jul. 17, 2024

"Simply stated, while it beat all expectations, there was a great deal of expectations built into that above and beyond where the analysts were," said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at B. Riley Wealth.

From Reuters • Aug. 24, 2023

So I tried to play along with the ding ding- a-ding ride cymbal thing that always works for jazz and immediately got the beat all turned around and messed up.

From "Drums, Girls, and Dangerous Pie" by Jordan Sonnenblick

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023