beyond ken

beyond (one's) ken

Advanced beyond one's ability to understand or make sense of the subject matter or task at hand. The stuff they're teaching in this advanced math class is beyond my ken.
See also: beyond, ken
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

beyond one's ken

outside the extent of one's knowledge or understanding. Why she married that shiftless drunkard is beyond our ken. His mean attitude to others is quite beyond my ken.
See also: beyond, ken
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.
See also:
  • beyond (one's) ken
  • beyond your ken
  • beyond/outside your ken
  • a bit beyond (one's) ken
  • ken
  • outside (one's) ken
  • be beyond (one's) ken
  • it's beyond me
  • above (one's) head
  • above your head
References in classic literature
After a season of darkness and struggling, light broke and relief fell: my cramped existence all at once spread out to a plain without bounds--my powers heard a call from heaven to rise, gather their full strength, spread their wings, and mount beyond ken. God had an errand for me; to bear which afar, to deliver it well, skill and strength, courage and eloquence, the best qualifications of soldier, statesman, and orator, were all needed: for these all centre in the good missionary.
Jane Eyre
Whatever our interest the amounts declared are beyond ken. For any rational observer, any obvious choice of career here would entail politics and fortune 500 lists would predominantly feature politicians.
The wages of politics
Costello picked him out with a great hand pass across goals but the 2011 All-Ireland winning captain couldn't palm his shot beyond Ken O'Halloran.
COL TO ARMS; FOOTBALL LEAGUE DIVISIOON 1: DUBLIN 0-18 CORK 1-17; O'Neill back with a bang as Rebels gun down Dubs
It is narrow and parochial to be based in and around London and seldom bother with anything that happens beyond Ken Livingstone land.
Narrow minded
But it was as a series of hilarious characters in radio's Beyond Ken and Round The Horne that he most memorably tickled the nation's funny bone.
RETO REPORT-APRIL, 1988:Carry On star found dead
Our habitat is being restructured on an order of magnitude beyond ken. What began as a technological revolution is already re-forming our every implement and reorganizing our every social arrangement.
"Workspheres": Museum of Modern Art, New York