out-Herod

See also: outherod

English

Alternative forms

• outherod

Etymology

From out- +‎ Herod.

Verb

out-Herod (third-person singular simple present out-Herods, present participle out-Heroding, simple past and past participle out-Heroded)

1. To surpass in evil and cruelty (originally and chiefly with Herod as direct object). [from 17th c.]
   • c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii]:

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

   • 1948, E. M. Butler, The Myth of the Magus:

     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.

   • 1989 November 9, Harry Levin, “Putting Pound Together”, in New York Review of Books:

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

Derived terms

• out-Herod Herod