Meaning of out-Herod | Babel Free

Definitions

To surpass in evil and cruelty.

Examples

“I could haue ſuch a Fellow whipt for o're-doing Termagant: it out-Herod's Herod. Pray you auoid it.”

“nor is his tone anything like so venomous as Carlyle's in that unpleasing essay on Cagliostro, in which he threw all decency to the winds and out-Heroded the Inquisition whilst ranting against it.”

“The farther and the longer away from his native country, the more he out-Heroded Artemus Ward and Petroleum V. Nasby.”

“Knowing that it is easier to convert the children than their elders, the Government of Nicholas I, out-Heroding Herod, inaugurated a system so cruel as to fill with terror and pity the heart of the most ferocious barbarian.”

CEFR level