hors concours
Americanadjective
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noting an artist, architect, or the like, not competing or not qualified to compete for the prizes in an exhibit or competition.
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noting or pertaining to a work or project submitted by such a person to an exhibit or competition.
adjective
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(of an artist, exhibitor, etc) excluded from competing
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without equal; unrivalled
Etymology
Origin of hors concours
Literally, “out (of the) competition”
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.
A few artists, such as Picasso and De Kooning, were by their own request hors concours.
From Time Magazine Archive
The result was actually the top 13, since No. 1 was declared hors concours and there were two ties.
From Time Magazine Archive
The sculptured groups would be received any day hors concours in the Salons for their technique only.
From From Edinburgh to India & Burmah by Burn Murdoch, W. G. (William Gordon)
Not all who looked upon him understood, for to be hors concours is to be accursed.
From The Girl at the Halfway House A Story of the Plains by Hough, Emerson
I did him the injustice of supposing that he felt himself to be himself, and hors concours so far as the general body of clerklings was concerned; but he had other reasons.
From On the Stairs by Fuller, Henry Blake
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
