▪ I. beauty, n.
(ˈbjuːtɪ)
Forms: 3 bealte, buute, 3–4 beute, 4 beuaute, bewtee, 4–5 bewte, 4–6 beaute, 5 beaultye, bewete, boutte, 5–6 beaulte, 6 beaulty, beawtye, bewtie, -tye, 6–7 beautie, 7 beuty, 6– beauty.
[ME. bealte, beute, a. OF. bealte, beaute, biaute, earlier beltet, mod. beauté, (cogn. with Pr. beltat, beutat, Sp. beldad, It. beltà):—late L. *bellitātem, f. bellus beautiful: see -ty.]
I. abstractly.
| (1756 Burke Subl. & B. iii. xii. (1808) 235 Beauty is, for the greater part, some quality in bodies acting mechanically upon the human mind by the intervention of the senses. 1784 J. Barry Lect. Art ii. (1848) 103 According to the definitions generally given, Beauty consists of unity and gradual variety; or unity, variety, and harmony..Our rule for judging of the mode and degree of this combination of variety and unity seems to be no other than that of its fitness and conformity to the designation of each species. 1827 Hare Guesses (1859) 77 Beauty is perfection unmodified by a predominating expression.) |
1. Such combined perfection of form and charm of colouring as affords keen pleasure to the sense of sight:
a. in the human face or figure.
| c 1275 in Wright Lyric P. xvi. 53 Heo is cristal of clannesse, Ant baner of bealte. c 1325 E.E. Allit. P. A. 764 He ȝef me myȝt & als bewte. c 1350 Will. Palerne 4074 A worschipful lady, þat burde was of beuaute briȝtest in erþe. c 1485 E.E. Misc. (Warton) 10 Alle owre pryd, owre jollytte and fayre boutte. 1485 Caxton Chas. Gt. 240 Samblant to..Absalon in beaulte! 1592 Shakes. Rom. & Jul. v. iii. 94 Beauties ensigne yet Is Crymson in thy lips. 1651 Hobbes Leviath. iii. xxxiv. 212 A Man, or Child of never so great beauty. 1711 Pope Rape Lock ii. 28 Fair tresses man's imperial race insnare, And beauty draws us with a single hair. 1847 Tennyson Princ. ii. 20 There sat..All beauty compass'd in a female form, The Princess. |
b. of other objects.
| 1340 Hampole Pr. Consc. 7857 Þare es bryghtnes and bewte Of alle thing þat men salle þare se. 1413 Lydg. Pylgr. Sowle iv. xxviii. (1483) 74 The wonderful beaute of creatures. c 1532 Ld. Berners Huon (1883) 412 The rychesse and beaulty of that chaumbre can not be dyscryuyd. 1752 Johnson Rambl. No. 192 ¶5 Describing the beauty of his brother's seat. 1818 Keats Endym. i. 1 A thing of beauty is a joy for ever; Its loveliness increases: it will never Pass into nothingness. |
2. That quality or combination of qualities which affords keen pleasure to other senses (
e.g. that of hearing), or which charms the intellectual or moral faculties, through inherent grace, or fitness to a desired end;
cf. beautiful a. 3.
| c 1300 Cursor M. 14115 Of all thing scho [Mary] tok till ane, widvten quam es buute [v.r. beute] nane. c 1449 Pecock Repr. 255 To speke and write the wordis in sum gaynes and bewte. 1599 Thynne Animadv. (1875) 56 The dialecte of oure tonge, whiche withe beawtye vsethe suche transmutacione. 1677 Gale Crt. Gentiles II. iv. 17 Beautie is defined by Plato the Fulgor, i.e. Lustre of Good. 1860 Emerson Cond. Life viii. 168 We ascribe beauty to that which is simple; which has no superfluous parts; which exactly answers its end. 1876 Hamerton Intell. Life ii. ii. 62 The beauty and solidity of the moral constitution. 1876 Green Short Hist. viii. §10 (1882) 584 The large but ordered beauty of form which he [Milton] had drunk in from the literature of Greece and Rome. |
† 3. The prevailing fashion or standard of the beautiful.
Obs.| a 1667 Jer. Taylor (in Webster) She stained her hair yellow, which was then the beauty. |
4. The abstract quality (
esp. in sense 1 a) personified.
| 1667 Milton P.L. vii. 533 The charm of Beauties powerful glance. 1730 Thomson Autumn 209 Thoughtless of beauty, she was beauty's self. a 1842 Tennyson Gardener's Dau. 57 Such a lord is Love, And Beauty such a mistress of the world. |
II. concr. 5. a. A beautiful person or thing;
esp. a beautiful woman. (Often used ironically). Also applied colloquially to an exceptionally good specimen of something (as a ball in cricket, a blow, etc.);
cf. beaut.
| 1483 Caxton Gold. Leg. 273/2, I haue loued the ouer late, thou beaulte. 1596 Shakes. Merch. V. iii. ii. 99 The beautious scarfe Vailing an Indian beautie. 1711 Addison Spect. No. 37 ¶4 Leonora was formerly a celebrated Beauty, and is still a very lovely Woman. 1753 Hogarth Anal. Beauty i. 14 When a vessel sails well, the sailors always call her a beauty. 1826 Disraeli Viv. Grey v. vi. (1868) 173 He was to be introduced to some of the most fashionable beauties. 1832 Carleton Traits Irish Peasant 380 Faith, you're a beauty, Elisha. 1882 Australians in England 1882 46 Spofforth was bowled by a ‘beauty’ from Mycroft. 1897 I. Scott How I stole 10,000 Sheep in Austral. iii. 11 Our own dogs..turned out to be ‘beauties’. 1899 J. Bell Shadow of Bush viii. 46, I saw a beauty of a two-bladed knife at Buncombe's store. 1923 J. Mander Strange Attraction vi. 71, I had a beauty of a little boat. 1924 Wodehouse Bill the Conqueror viii. 147 She..swung her right and plugged Slingsby a perfect beauty in the eye. |
b. collectively, The beautiful women, etc.
| 1611 Bible 2 Sam. i. 19 The beauty of Israel is slaine vpon thy high places. 1613 Shakes. Hen. VIII, i. iii. 55 There will be The Beauty of this Kingdome. 1816 Byron Ch. Har. iii. xxi, Belgium's capital had gather'd then Her Beauty and her Chivalry. |
c. In various collectors' names of butterflies and moths.
| 1766 M. Harris Aurelian: Nat. Hist. Moths & Butterflies 19 The Brindled Beauty..prettily diamonded on the Back with black, and spotted with yellow. 1832 J. Rennie Consp. Butterfl. & M. 104 The Oak Beauty (Biston prodromarius, Leach). The Brindled Beauty (Biston hirtarius, Leach). 1847 [see Camberwell Beauty]. 1921 Conquest Sept. 495/3 The Pale Brindled Beauty (Phigalia pilosaria)..has a particularly handsome black form. |
6. a. A beautiful feature or trait; an embellishment, ornament, grace, charm.
| 1563 Shute Archit. D iij a, The which is a beautie vnto the whole Coronix. 1611 Bible Ps. cx. 3 In the beauties of holinesse. 1711 Pope Rape Lock iv. 170 These, in two sable ringlets taught to break, Once gave new beauties to the snowy neck. 1712 Addison Spec. 291 ¶7 To discover the concealed Beauties of a Writer. 1849 Macaulay Hist. Eng. II. 630 The one beauty of the resolution is its inconsistency. 1860 Tyndall Glac. i. §1. 1 Guided by a friend who knew the country, I became acquainted with its chief beauties. |
b. pl. In the titles of collections of the beautiful or choice passages of a writer or speaker, or examples of
art.| 1737 (title) The Beauties of the English Stage, consisting of all the celebrated passages, soliloquies, similies, descriptions and other poetical beauties in the English plays, etc. 1752 W. Dodd (title) The Beauties of Shakespear, regularly selected from each play. 1767 (title) The Beauties of English Poesy. Selected by Oliver Goldsmith. 1786 (title) The beauties of the British Senate, taken from the debates of the Lords and Commons. 1860 Athenæum 31 Mar. 442/1 It might have been fancied that the days of ‘Beauties’, ‘Gems’, ‘Anthologies’ were over. 1865 (title) Beauties of Poetry and Art. |
7. Colloq. phrases, as
† it was great beauty (
obs.): it was a fine sight.
that's the beauty of it:
i.e. the feature or phase that affords special pleasure and satisfaction.
| 1523 Ld. Berners Froiss. I. xli. 57 It was a great beauty to beholde the baners and standerdes wauyng. Ibid. cxliv. 172 Hit was great beautie to beholde their puyssant array. 1754 Richardson Grandison III. xviii. 159 That's the beauty of it; to offend and make up at pleasure. |
8. beauty of wildness: see
quot.| 1611 J. Guillim Heraldry iii. xiv. (1660) 174 Foresters and Hunters do call this yearly mewing of their heads, the beauty of their wildnesse: not the Mewing of their Horns. |
III. Comb. a. poet., as
beauty-bow,
beauty-crest,
beauty-in-the-ghost;
beauty-beaming,
beauty-blooming,
beauty-blushing,
beauty-breathing,
beauty-bright,
beauty-clad,
beauty-drunken,
beauty-waning.
b. Also
beauty-bloom, beautiful tint or colour;
beauty contest, a competition of women for a prize or distinction awarded to the most beautiful;
beauty culture chiefly
U.S., use of cosmetics, etc., to improve a person's appearance; hence
beauty culturist; also
beauty doctor,
beauty specialist;
† beauty-man Obs., a handsome fellow, a dandy, a lady's man;
beauty-manner, the bearing of a ‘beauty’;
† beauty-mock, an imitation of beauty;
beauty parlour orig. U.S., an establishment in which the trade of a beauty specialist is carried on;
beauty-proof a, proof against the influence of beauty;
beauty queen orig. U.S., name given to the winner of a beauty contest;
beauty salon = beauty parlour;
cf. salon 4;
beauty shop U.S. = beauty parlour;
beauty show = beauty contest;
beauty-sleep, the sleep secured before midnight;
beauty treatment, the use of cosmetics, etc., in order to improve personal beauty;
beauty-wash, a liquid employed to preserve or heighten beauty, a cosmetic.
| a. 1594 Shakes. Rich. III, iii. vii. 185 A Beautie-waining and distressed Widow. 1595 Chapman Banq. Sence (1639) 23 This Beauty-clad naked lady. 1597 Drayton Mortimer. 13 This beauty-blushing orient of his rise. 1727 Thomson Summer, All the varied hues Their beauty-beaming parent can disclose. 1813 Byron Genevra 10 When from his beauty-breathing pencil born..The Magdalen of Guido saw the morn. 1818 Keats Endym. i. 363 To nightly call Vesper, the beauty-crest of summer weather. a 1889 G. M. Hopkins Poems (1918) 83 Rough-Robin or five-lipped campion clear For a beauty-bow to his hat. a 1889 Ibid. (1918) 56 Beauty-in-the-ghost, deliver it, early now, long before death Give beauty back. 1928 Yeats Tower 62 The Great Mother, mourning for her daughter And beauty-drunken by the water. |
| 1853 Kingsley Hypatia xxv. 318 Young Apollo, with the *beauty-bloom upon his chin! |
| 1899 A. M. Binstead Gal's Gossip v. 77 Just the sort of woman who could apparently hold her own either in a *beauty contest, a political debate, or a scrape. 1933 J. B. Priestley Wonder Hero iv. 129 She had won a beauty contest, and was probably easily the prettiest girl staying in the hotel. |
| 1909 Harper's Bazaar Feb. 172 (title) Modern *beauty culture. 1911 W. A. Woodbury (title) Beauty Culture: A Practical Handbook on the Care of the Person. 1928 Punch 5 Sept. 280/1 Valuable information which is afforded about domestic economy, feminine attire, cookery, beauty-culture. 1933 Times Lit. Suppl. 29 June 448/4 A small American town, whose main interests are bridge, poker, ‘beauty-culture’ and gossip. |
| 1911 W. A. Woodbury Beauty Cult. 14 The successful *beauty culturist must, above all, be modest, tactful, and discreet. 1919 Honey Pot I. iii. 40 Dr. Caissarate, that wonderful beauty culturist. |
| 1905 E. Wharton House of Mirth ii. ix. 430 A strange throng of hangers-on—manicures, *beauty-doctors, hair-dressers. 1921 Dict. Occup. Terms (1927) §920 Beauty specialist, beauty doctor. |
| 1837 Lytton Ernest Maltrav. I. ii. ii. 181 The *Beauty-man is, nine times out of ten, little more than the oracle of his aunts, and the ‘sitch a love’ of the housemaids. 1860 Temple Bar Mag. I. 68 A beauty-man, who rides and dances well. 1888 F. Hume Mystery of Hansom Cab xix. 130 A clergyman..preached a sermon to prove that good looks and crime were closely connected, and that both Judas Iscariot and Nero were beauty-men. |
| 1598 Sylvester Du Bartas ii. iv. iv. Argt. (1641) 227 Achabs Stock, With his proud Queen (a painted *Beauty-mock). |
| 1908 Harper's Weekly 24 Oct. 22/1 The *‘beauty parlors’ of a large department store. There are a number of booths divided off by wooden partitions. 1932 Daily Express 20 Sept. 5/5, I have decided to go into a beauty parlour when I grow up. 1938 E. Bowen Death of Heart ii. iv. 244 She was the receptionist in Southstone's biggest beauty parlour. |
| 1753 Richardson Grandison (1781) III. xiv. 105, I am *Beauty-proof. |
| 1922 N.Y. Times 5 Sept. 19/6 The winning beauty will be heralded as America's *‘Beauty Queen’. 1933 J. B. Priestley Wonder Hero iii. 86 The girl who's just won the Morning Pictorial's beauty competition..the Beauty Queen. 1960 Guardian 11 June 7/4 Seventeen national beauty queens compete for the title ‘Miss Europe’. |
| 1922 Amer. Hairdresser Sept. 114/1 A. Simonson on September 5 opened new *beauty salons at 54 West 57th street. 1954 J. L. Morse Unicorn Bk. 1953 18/2 Beauty salons had special prices. 1982 Amer. Speech LVII. 187 No doubt many of the businesses listed in the ‘Yellow Pages’ under Beauty Salon are actually incorporated. |
| 1901 Current Lit. Apr. 446/1 The Oldest *Beauty-Shop. 1939 A. Huxley After many a Summer i. i. 6 Next door to the beauty shoppe was a Western Union office. 1948 Mencken Amer. Lang. Suppl. I. 573 Beauty-parlor began to appear before World War I, and soon afterward it was displaced by beauty-shop. Sometimes the latter is spelled beauty-shoppe, or even beauté-shoppe. 1969 B. Knox Tallyman vii. 132 Janey Milton..on her way to have her hair set at a local beauty shop. |
| 1896 C. S. Leaves from Diary in Lower Bengal v. 74 The idea occurred to him to have a *Beauty Show of our servants..the prize to be given to the ugliest. 1907 G. B. Shaw Let. 7 Sept. (1941) 37 You would make me a curtain-raiser for a beauty show. |
| 1857 Kingsley Two Y. Ago II. xv. 148 A medical man, who may be called up at any moment, must make sure of his ‘*beauty-sleep.’ |
| 1907 M. E. Braddon Dead Love has Chains vii. 148 She must have *beauty-specialists, massage, electricity. 1938 N. Marsh Death in White Tie xxix. 305 Mrs. Halcut-Hackett..looking like a beauty-specialist's mistake. |
| 1928 B. Bushby (title) Postal Tuition Course of *Beauty Treatment. 1934 R. Macaulay Going Abroad xxxiii. 282 Beauty treatment is never cheap. |
| 1709 Steele Tatler No. 34 ¶2 The only true Cosmetick or *Beauty-Wash in the World. |
Senses II. 5–8 in
Dict. become II. 6–9. Add:
[I.] 5. Particle Physics. [An arbitrary choice of name.]
= bottom n. 17.
| 1977 [see bottom n. 17]. 1978 Proc. Indian Nat. Sci. Acad. A. XLIV. 308 (heading) Beauty quark and new hadrons. 1979 [see truth n. 8]. 1983 Sci. Amer. July 98/1 The first indication of the existence of quarks endowed with beauty came six years ago as the result of experiments in which a beam of high-energy protons was directed against a stationary target. 1985 Daily Tel. 7 May 18 Scientists have succeeded in proving that ‘beauty’ exists... ‘Beauty’ lasts about one tenth of a millionth of a millionth of a second before decaying. |
▸
beauty mark n. a small natural or artificial mark on the skin,
esp. a mole or freckle on the face, which is considered to enhance a person's beauty;
cf. beauty-spot n. 1.
| 1848 H. Martineau Eastern Life iv. 53 Two who came from Dongola have their faces curiously gashed with three cuts on each cheek... These cuts are given them by their parents in childhood, for *beauty marks. 1849 Weekly Wisconsin (Milwaukee) (Electronic text) 11 July Her cheeks and forehead were spotted with beauty marks. 1968 F. Exley Fan's Notes ii. 60 A sharp beauty mark right at her sensual mouth. 1992 A. Kurzweil Case of Curiosities xxxv. 231 Her makeup..began to drip. A tiny velvet beauty mark slid down her chin. |
▸
beauty pageant n. orig. U.S. = beauty contest n. at Compounds 2.
| 1911 Syracuse (N.Y.) Herald 9 Apr. (Special Cable News section) a5/2 (heading) Pick blondes for *beauty pageant. 1928 W. Brooke Graves Readings in Public Opinion iv. 126 Was the annual beauty pageant at Atlantic City objectionable on moral grounds? 2006 Guardian (Nexis) 1 June 29 The Miss Europe beauty pageant has had contestants from Turkey, Israel and Lebanon. |
▪ II. ˈbeauty, v. arch. Also 4–5
bewtye,
bewte, 6
beautye.
[f. prec. n.] trans. To render beautiful; to beautify, adorn, deck.
| 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xvii. lxxiii. (1495) 647 Floures..defoyleth not the yerde: but bewtyeth it. 1525 Ld. Berners Froiss. II. xlii. 131 The Pecocke sayd, he is gretly beautyed by reason of my fethers. 1602 Shakes. Ham. iii. i. 51 The Harlots Cheeke beautied with plaist'ring Art. 1855 Singleton Virgil I. 201 The altars of the gods in wreathed festoons Are beautied. |