Wiktionary

beauty

English

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Etymology

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From Middle English bewty, bewte, beaute, bealte, from Anglo-Norman and Old French beauté (early Old French spelling biauté), from Vulgar Latin *bellitātem (“beauty”), from Latin bellus (“beautiful, fair”); see beau. In this sense, mostly displaced native Old English fæġernes, whence Modern English fairness.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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beauty (countable and uncountable, plural beauties)

  1. (uncountable) The quality of being (especially visually) attractive, pleasing, fine or good-looking; comeliness.
    • 1818, John Keats, “Book I”, in Endymion: A Poetic Romance, London: […] T[homas] Miller, […] for Taylor and Hessey, […], →OCLC, page 3, lines 1–5:
      A thing of beauty is a joy for ever: / Its loveliness increases; it will never / Pass into nothingness; but still will keep / A bower quiet for us, and a sleep / Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing.
    • 1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:
      ‘Say, hast thou seen enough!’ ‘I have looked on beauty, and I am blinded,’ I said hoarsely, lifting my hand to cover up my eyes.
    • 1900, Charles W[addell] Chesnutt, chapter I, in The House Behind the Cedars, Boston, Mass.; New York, N.Y.: Houghton, Mifflin and Company […], →OCLC:
      Warwick's first glance had revealed the fact that the young woman was strikingly handsome, with a stately beauty seldom encountered.
    • 1932, Delos W. Lovelace, King Kong, published 1965, page 152:
      "The aviators didn't get him," Denham replied slowly. "What?" "It was Beauty. As always Beauty killed the Beast."
    • 1988, "… beauty and recollection, like danger, glamour, greed, hunger- everything but disappointment and desire- were concepts belonging to other people.” -Second Son, Robert Ferro
  3. Someone who is beautiful.
    Brigitte Bardot was a renowned beauty.
  4. (in the plural) Those aspects or elements that make someone or something beautiful.
    • 1769, Firishta, translated by Alexander Dow, Tales translated from the Persian of Inatulla of Delhi, volume I, Dublin: P. and W. Wilson et al., page iii:
      There the roſy-finger'd Spring, by the liquid mirror of a cryſtalline pool, was attiring her fair daughters in ſeven-fold ornaments, while the love-whiſpering breezes ſtole kiſſes as they paſſed, and fanned their glowing beauties.
  5. Something that is particularly good or pleasing.
    What a goal! That was a real beauty!
  6. An excellent or egregious example of something.
    He got into a fight and ended up with two black eyes – two real beauties!
  7. (with the definite article) The excellence or genius of a scheme or decision.
    The beauty of the deal is it costs nothing!
  8. (physics, obsolete) A beauty quark (now called bottom quark).
  9. Beauty treatment; cosmetology.
    a hair and beauty salon
    • 2013, Bethany Rooney, Mary Lou Belli, Directors Tell the Story, page 184:
      When the beauty team departs the set, the AD will say, “Let’s go on a bell.” A bell sounds throughout the stage, and […]
  10. (obsolete) Prevailing style or taste; rage; fashion.
    • 1653, Jeremy Taylor, “Twenty-five Sermons Preached at Golden Grove; Being for the Winter Half-year, […]: Sermon XVIII. [The Marriage Ring; or, The Mysteriousness and Duties of Marriage.] Part II.”, in Reginald Heber, editor, The Whole Works of the Right Rev. Jeremy Taylor, D.D. […], volume V, London: Ogle, Duncan, and Co. […]; and Richard Priestley, […], published 1822, →OCLC, page 277:
      Menander in the comedy brings in a man turning his wife from his house, because she stained her hair yellow, which was then the beauty.
  11. (archaic, in the plural) Beautiful passages or extracts of poetry.

Synonyms

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Antonyms

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Derived terms

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Collocations

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Collocations
  • Adjectives often applied to "beauty": natural, great, real, physical, exotic, inner, spiritual, strange, divine, visual, heavenly, intellectual, facial, attractive, sensuous, sensual, seductive, musical, austere, alluring, mathematical, geometric, astounding, bodily, pictorial.

Descendants

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  • → Cebuano: byuti

Translations

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See also

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Interjection

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beauty

  1. (Canada) Thanks!
  2. (Canada) Cool!
    It's the long weekend. Beauty!

Adjective

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beauty (comparative more beauty, superlative most beauty)

  1. (Canada) Of high quality, well done.
    He made a beauty pass through the neutral zone.

Verb

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beauty (third-person singular simple present beauties, present participle beautying, simple past and past participle beautied)

  1. (obsolete, transitive) To make beautiful.

Further reading

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Dutch

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Etymology

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Borrowed from English beauty.

Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /ˈbjuː.ti/
  • Audio:(file)
  • Hyphenation: beau‧ty

Noun

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beauty f (plural beauty's, diminutive beauty'tje n)

  1. a beauty, looker, beautiful person
  2. a beautiful other creature or thing
    Die prachtige hengst is al net zo'n beauty als z'n ruiter
    That gorgeous stallion is as much of a beauty as his rider
  3. human beauty, as the object or goal of cosmetics etc.

Synonyms

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