TO OUT-HEROD HEROD, verb. (colloquial).—To exceed in excess.

1

  1596.  SHAKESPEARE, Hamlet, iii. 2, 15. I would have such a fellow whipped for o’er-doing Termagant; it OUT-HERODS HEROD: Pray you, avoid it.

2

  1821.  P. EGAN, Life in London [DICK’S], 23. The author … intends to do a great deal, but he does not mean to OUT-HEROD HEROD.

3

  1845.  POE, Prose Tales, i. 343. The figure in question had OUT-HERODED HEROD, and gone beyond the bounds of even the prince’s indefinite decorum.

4

  d. 1859.  DE QUINCEY, The Essenes, i. Yet another and a very favourite Emperor OUTHERODS even this butcher [Gallienus].

5