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out-Herod |
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out-Herod vb
(tr) to surpass in evil, excesses, or cruelty [originally out-Herod Herod, from Shakespeare's Hamlet (act 3, scene 2); see also Herod: portrayed in medieval mystery plays as a ranting tyrant] ThesaurusLegend: Synonyms Related Words Antonyms
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| When first he joined us and saw our mark upon the foreheads of our dead, wishing to out-Herod Herod, he marked the living which fell into his hands with a red hot iron, branding a great P upon each cheek and burning out the right eye completely. Noah's wife, for example, came regularly to be presented as a shrew, who would not enter the ark until she had been beaten into submission; and Herod always appears as a blustering tyrant, whose fame still survives in a proverb of Shakspere's coinage--'to out-Herod Herod. |
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