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to beat the band

 [band]   Origin

band

1   [band]
noun
1.
a company of persons or, sometimes, animals or things, joined, acting, or functioning together; aggregation; party; troop: a band of protesters.
2.
Music.
a.
a group of instrumentalists playing music of a specialized type: rock band; calypso band; mariachi band.
b.
a musical group, usually employing brass, percussion, and often woodwind instruments, that plays especially for marching or open-air performances.
c.
big band.
d.
dance band.
3.
a division of a nomadic tribe; a group of individuals who move and camp together and subsist by hunting and gathering.
4.
a group of persons living outside the law: a renegade band.
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Ad
verb (used with object)
5.
to unite in a troop, company, or confederacy.

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To beat the band is always a great word to know.
So is zedonk. Does it mean:
a screen or mat covered with a dark material for shielding a camera lens from excess light or glare.
the offspring of a zebra and a donkey.
LEARN MORE UNUSUAL WORDS WITH WORD DYNAMO...
verb (used without object)
6.
to unite; confederate (often followed by together): They banded together to oust the chairman.
Idiom
7.
to beat the band, Informal. energetically; abundantly: It rained all day to beat the band.
Origin:
1480–90; < Middle French bande < Italian banda; cognate with Late Latin bandum < Germanic; akin to Gothic bandwa standard, band2, band3, bend1, bond1

Synonyms
1. gang, group; body; set; society, association, assembly. See company.

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
Cite This Source Link To to beat the band
Etymonline
Word Origin & History

band
"an organized group," late 15c., from M.Fr. bande , traceable to P.Gmc. root of band (1), probably via a band of cloth worn as a mark of identification by a group of soldiers or others (cf. Gothic bandwa "a sign"). The extension to "group of musicians" is c.1660, originally
EXPAND
musicians attached to a regiment of the army. To beat the band (1897) is to make enough noise to drown it out, hence to exceed everything.
COLLAPSE
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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American Heritage
Medical Dictionary

band (bānd)
n.

  1. An appliance or a part of an apparatus that encircles or binds a part of the body.

  2. A cordlike tissue that connects or that holds bodily structures together.

  3. A chromatically, structurally, or functionally differentiated strip or stripe in or on an organism.

The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Cite This Source
American Heritage
Science Dictionary
band   (bānd)  Pronunciation Key 
A specific range of electromagnetic wavelengths or frequencies, as those used in radio broadcasting.
The American Heritage® Science Dictionary
Copyright © 2002. Published by Houghton Mifflin. All rights reserved.
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Slang Dictionary

to beat the band definition


  1. mod.
    very hard and very fast. : He's selling computers to beat the band since he started advertising.
Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions by Richard A. Spears.Fourth Edition.
Copyright 2007. Published by McGraw Hill.
Cite This Source
American Heritage
Idioms & Phrases

to beat the band

Also, to beat all. To the greatest possible degree. For example, The baby was crying to beat the band, or The wind is blowing to beat the band, or John is dressed up to beat all. This idiom uses beat in the sense of "surpass." The first term may, according to one theory, allude to a desire to arrive before the musicians who led a parade, so as to see the entire event. Another theory holds that it means "make more noise than (and thereby beat) a loud band." [Colloquial; late 1800s]

The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.
Copyright © 1997. Published by Houghton Mifflin.
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