off the charts

Syllable breakdown

Dictionary meaning

an idiom meaning beyond the range of normal measurement or expectation, so extreme or exceptional as to exceed whatever scale or framework one would normally use to assess it, derived from the nautical concept of sailing beyond the area covered by available navigational charts into waters that are unmapped and therefore unpredictable; nautical charts are the fundamental navigational tool of maritime practice, encoding depth soundings, hazards, currents, and coastlines accumulated through centuries of survey, and to sail off the charts is to venture into genuine uncertainty where the accumulated knowledge encoded in the chart no longer applies; in contemporary usage off the charts describes measurements, performances, or qualities that register as extreme on whatever scale is being applied — sales figures off the charts, talent off the charts, prices off the charts — and functions as an intensifier expressing superlative degree with a note of genuine surprise at the magnitude encountered