BEYOND THE PALE Definition & Meaning

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beyond the pale

Totally unacceptable: “His business practices have always been questionable, but this last takeover was beyond the pale.” The Pale in Ireland was a territorial limit beyond which English rule did not extend.

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Idioms and Phrases

Outside the bounds of morality, good behavior or judgment; unacceptable. For example, She thought taking the boys to a topless show was beyond the pale. The noun pale, from the Latin palum, meant “a stake for fences” or “a fence made from such stakes.” By extension it came to be used for an area confined by a fence and for any boundary, limit, or restriction, both of these meanings dating from the late 1300s. The pale referred to in the idiom is usually taken to mean the English Pale, the part of Ireland under English rule, and therefore, as perceived by its rulers, within the bounds of civilization.

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Example Sentences

Examples have not been reviewed.

Speaking at the Scottish Trades Union Congress in Dundee, John Swinney said the band's alleged comments had "crossed a line" and were "beyond the pale".

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While I’ve long decried the two-tier system of justice for leaks by the politically powerful versus career public servants, the Hegseth case is beyond the pale.

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Roddy Dunlop KC said the comments were "beyond the pale" and that Chapman should consider her role as deputy convenor as her remarks conflicted with Scottish Parliament guidance on impartiality.

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“What Trump unveiled Wednesday,” tweeted billionaire investment manager Ken Fisher, who has contributed to Republicans and Democrats, “is stupid, wrong, arrogantly extreme, ignorant trade-wise and addressing a non-problem with misguided tools. ... On tariffs Trump is beyond the pale by a long shot.”

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There was just something about the Sanders coalition that felt too prickly, too online, and too brusquely dude-ish, all beyond the pale for my priggish liberal sensibilities in the mid-2010s.

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