leave someone in the dust

Verb

leave someone in the dust (third-person singular simple present leaves someone in the dust, present participle leaving someone in the dust, simple past and past participle left someone in the dust)

1. (idiomatic, informal) To completely overtake a competitor.
   • The company has currently no plans to switch away from the old designs, so they could very easily be left in the dust.
   • With that we parted. Presently after my friend overtook and passed me on a hired steed which seemed to scorn its cavalier; and I was left in the dust of his passage, a prey to whirling thoughts.1892, Robert Louis Stevenson, The Wrecker

   Synonyms:

   leave for dust

2. (dated) To abandon; to leave behind.
   • In like manner, our great Henry, was not he forſaken? Left in the duſt of disfauour, and neglected all the time of his childhood?1619, Thomas Milles, ΑΡΧΑΙΟ-ΠΛΟΥΤΟΣ. Containing, Ten following Bookes to the former Treasurie of Auncient and Moderne Times
   • The soul knows itself to be more noble than the corruptible body, which it is now to leave in the dust;1671, Rev. John Flavel, The Fountian of Life; or, A Display of Christ in His Essential and Mediatorial Glory