out-Herods

Sometimes, alas! the calmest man is carried away in the torrent, bandies adjectives with the best, and out-Herods Herod for some shameful moments.

Virginibus Puerisque and other papers 2005

Stephenson, at Liverpool, to learn what he was doing, and to order engines from him; but Mr. King out-herods Herod, for he claims on behalf of the Colonel, the working of Steam expansively in 1815, for which Watt had taken out a patent thirty-five years before.

Lands of the Slave and the Free Cuba, the United States, and Canada Henry A. Murray

I would have such a fellow whipped for o'erdoing Termagant; it out-herods Herod pray you avoid it.

The Canadian Elocutionist Anna Kelsey Howard

I could have such a fellow whipped for overdoing termagant: it out-Herods Herod.

The Tatler, Volume 1, 1899 George A. Aitken

Ladies always wear bonnets at a garden-party, and the sensible fashion of short dresses has hitherto prevailed; but it is rumored that a recent edict of the Princess of Wales against short dresses at her garden-parties will find followers on this side of the water, notably at Newport, which out-Herods Herod in its respect to English fashions.

Manners and Social Usages Mrs. John M. E. W. Sherwood

Bee, who always out-Herods Herod, became so bucolic that she nearly drove the hens off their nests in order to hatch the eggs personally.

At Home with the Jardines Lilian Bell

Hamlet's saying "he out-Herods Herod" sufficiently suggests the raging tyrant whom the playwrights of the Middle Ages loved.

Christmas in Ritual and Tradition, Christian and Pagan Clement A. Miles

I would have such a fellow whipped for o’erdoing Termagant; it out-herods Herod.

Hamlet 1919

I would have such a fellow whipped for o’erdoing Termagant; it out-herods Herod.

Quotations 1919

I would have such a fellow whipped for o’erdoing Termagant; it out-herods Herod.

Quotations 1919