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

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

In the cities the overcrowding has become so excessive, and the accomodation available for the poor is so inadequate, costly and squalid, as to almost beggar description.

From Darkest India A Supplement to General Booth's "In Darkest England, and the Way Out" by Booth-Tucker, Commissioner

The horrors which were here enacted beggar description, and leave a hideous stain upon the page of history.

From Great Men and Famous Women. Vol. 1 A series of pen and pencil sketches of the lives of more than 200 of the most prominent personages in History by Horne, Charles F. (Charles Francis)