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.”

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Example Sentences

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

The scenes in the Jewish quarter at the close of the riot, beggar description.

From Rabbi and Priest A Story by Goldsmith, Milton

Meanwhile King Sasan went in to his wife Nuzhet ez Zeman, who said to him, "I hear that the folk talk of nothing but Kanmakan and attribute to him such qualities as beggar description."

From The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Volume II by Payne, John

Day and night cease to be relative terms, while the strange effect and the magic brightness of a Polar night utterly beggar description.

From Due North or Glimpses of Scandinavia and Russia by Ballou, Maturin Murray