class act

a class act

A person who excels or succeeds with impressive style or ability. At 73, the aging pop star proves that he's still a class act on the stage. With her tireless work for charities and activist groups, the team's captain is a true class act both on the field and off.
See also: act, class
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

class act

n. a high-quality act; a high-quality way of doing things. The prof puts on a real class act, but he grades very hard.
See also: act, class
McGraw-Hill's Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions

class act

Elegant, refined, tasteful. The use of “class” in this sense originated in the second half of the 1800s in sports, where it described an athlete with such admirable qualities. In the second half of the 1900s, “act” was added and the term was used in the entertainment industry. A Boston Globe editorial had it: “Conan O’Brien: A Class Act Comes Home” (June 5, 2010), expanding “O’Brien has come across as a class act throughout the machinations that led NBC to have him replace fellow Bay Stater Jay Leno as host of the Tonight Show, then renege after Leno’s 10 p.m. replacement show bombed.”
See also: act, class
The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer
See also:
  • a class act
  • God's own gift to (something)
  • be (a) one for (something)
  • be one for something/for doing something
  • an all-rounder
  • the straw that breaks the camel's back
  • the straw that breaks the donkey's back
  • the straw that broke the camel's back
  • the straw that broke the donkey's back
  • shmoozer
References in periodicals archive
Class Act Books publishers came under new ownership in 2013.
We're delighted to say that copies of the hundreds of pictures featured already in our Class Act section, in addition to most of our All Our Yesterdays archive pictures, are available from our John William Street office.
Another PPACA CLASS Act provision required the Health and Human Services (HHS) secretary to verify that the CLASS program would be sustainable over the next 75 years before implementing it.
"Repealing the CLASS Act isn't necessary or productive.
Under the federal CLASS Act (Community Living Assistance Services and Support Act), benefit triggers will parallel private sector triggers, although it has yet to be determined whether the law will require meeting two or three activities.
After some rather contentious congressional hearings, the CLASS Act section of the health care bill went into effect in January.
* The CLASS Act is a government-mandated program, not a government-funded program.
The core element of the CLASS Act is that it creates a voluntary payroll deduction program.
Of concern to CLASS Act supporters, however, was the fact that the Thune amendment, while defeated, received 51 votes, including those of 11 Democrats.
The CLASS Act would create a national, voluntary disability insurance under which (1) all employees are automatically enrolled but are allowed to waive enrollment, (2) payroll deductions pay monthly premiums, and (3) two-tiered benefits are provided, based on the level of disability, to purchase nonmedical services and supports beneficiaries need to maintain independence.
This year the Class Act talent pool features wild and wacky acts like a classical drummer, a 13-year-old Joe Dolan impersonator complete with white suit and frisky dance moves, a pair of Cork rappers and a dancing contortionist who can literally tie herself in knots.
and "Class Act" helmer, is confronting this question head-on.
4 edition of REW, a report on Jacky Teplitzky's appointment to the Real Estate Institute at New York University's School of Continuing and Professional Studies ran with the headline, "Jacky's a class act at Real Estate Academy.' NYU's School of Continuing and Professional studies is not connected with the Real Estate Academy, one of the city's leading real estate schools, which is located at 666 Fifth Ave., Suite 118, New York, NY, 10103.
Songs of heartache,injustice, protest and love rang out as the passionately driven American singer-- song writer showed why she is still a class act.
Atkins had hung up his tap shoes by the 1960s, but tapper Dianne Walker persuaded him to help choreograph the Broadway hit Black and Blue in 1989, for which he shared a Tony Award Scholar/writer Jacqui Malone collaborated with him to chronicle his remarkable career in the 2001 book Class Act: The Jazz Life of Choreographer Cholly Atkins.