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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

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

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