【字面理解】所有描述都顯得匱乏
【英文解析】to be too strange and unusual to be believed or described
【中文解析】不可思議;難以置信;難以形容
【典型例句】① The sight of him completely covered with mud and oil beggared all description.他渾身又是泥又是油, 那樣子真是難以描述。
② Tim left two windows wide open when he went on holidays. His stupidity beggars all description!蒂姆大開(kāi) 著兩扇窗戶就度假去了,他簡(jiǎn)直愚不可及!
【注釋】beggar原指“乞丐”,當(dāng)用作及物動(dòng)詞時(shí)有“抽盡 其資源”的意思。莎士比亞在《安東尼和克婁巴特拉》 (Antony and Cleopatra)中用 beggar all description 這個(gè)短語(yǔ)來(lái)形容埃及艷后克婁巴特拉:For her own person, it beggar’d all description.(說(shuō)到她本人,那簡(jiǎn) 直沒(méi)有字眼可以形容)。自此之后,這個(gè)短語(yǔ)逐漸成 為習(xí)語(yǔ),表示“難以形容非筆墨所能形容”。變體: beggar description; beggar (all) belief。