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

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

From Rabbi and Priest A Story by Goldsmith, Milton

The events that occurred during the following hundred or more days beggar description.

From The Smoky God, or, a voyage to the inner world by Emerson, Willis George