beyond recall


Irreversible, irretrievable, as in We can't repair this screen—it's beyond recall, or It's too late to cancel our plans—they're beyond recall. This idiom employs recall in the sense of revoking or annulling something. [Mid-1600s]

Words Nearby beyond recall

The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

How to use beyond recall in a sentence

  • It melts the stone of actual life into meaningless lava beyond recall.

  • Nina she evidently regarded as absorbed fatally, beyond recall; and no wonder, when for her the game was so magnificent.

    The Creators | May Sinclair
  • But happily they were not beyond recall, and, with Petros army to back them, they now hurried back to bring aid.

    The Cradle of Mankind | W.A. Wigram
  • She was in a frenzy till she could get it out of her hands and into the postal-box beyond recall.

    The Coast of Bohemia | William Dean Howells
  • Again he surveyed the jeweled emblem on the sword, mocking reminder of a glory gone beyond recall.

    Under the Rose | Frederic Stewart Isham
  • Friends of the house were soon thoroughly convinced that Old Nick was done for; the widow had captivated him beyond recall.

    Dry Fish and Wet | Anthon Bernhard Elias Nilsen