beyond (one's) means
Exceeding one's available finances. If you keep living beyond your means, you'll deplete your bank account before you know it. Unfortunately, I can't go on the trip anymore—it's just beyond my means these days. Being so poor during college taught me not to live beyond my means once I got a steady job.
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2024 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.
beyond one's means
more than one can afford. I'm sorry, but this house is beyond our means. Please show us a cheaper one. They feel that a Caribbean cruise is beyond their means.
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs. © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
beyond one's means
Too costly for one, more than one can afford. For example, A second vacation this year is well beyond our means. The noun means here signifies "resources at one's disposal," a usage current since Shakespeare's time, as in Measure for Measure (2:2): "Let her have needful, but not lavish means." [Late 1800s]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Copyright © 2003, 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.