beauty

I

(New American Roget's College Thesaurus)

Quality that arouses pleasure

Nouns

1. beauty, the beautiful; form, elegance, grace, charm, beauty unadorned; symmetry; loveliness, attractiveness, comeliness, fairness, pulchritude, good looks, body beautiful, shapeliness, hourglass figure; style, polish, gloss (See smoothness); bloom, brilliancy, radiance, splendor, gorgeousness, magnificence, glory; delicacy, refinement. Slang, curves.

2. (beautiful person)

a. thing of beauty. Informal, vision, picture, eyeful, sight for sore eyes.

b. Venus, Aphrodite, Hebe, the Graces, peri, houri, Helen of Troy; [sex] goddess; witch, enchantress; reigning beauty, beauty queen, Miss or Mrs. America, Miss U. S. A., Miss Universe, etc.; charmer, belle [of the ball]; poster girl, pinup [girl]. Informal, eyeful, picture, dream[boat], stunner, [Georgia] peach, doll, knockout, raving beauty, good-looker, cover or pinup girl, sweater girl. Slang, looker, cupcake, doll city, dish, dollface, [stone] fox, filly, sex bomb or kitten, pigeon, sexpot, quail, wren, barbecue.

c. Mr. America, Adonis, Narcissus. Informal, ladykiller, ladies' man, dreamboat, pistol, beefcake, freak daddy, hunk.

3. (something that renders beautiful)

a. beautification, beautifying; cosmetology; makeover; makeup, cosmetics; foundation, lipstick, lip rouge, nail polish, mascara, eye shadow, eyebrow pencil; mudpack, vanishing cream, etc.; vanity case, compact; decoration, adornment, accessory, embellishment, ornamentation (See ornament); glitz. Slang, war paint.

b. cosmetic surgery, face lift, nose job, tuck.

c. manicure, pedicure; beautician, cosmetologist, cosmetician, makeup artist; hairdresser, coiffeur, coiffeuse; manicurist, pedicurist; beauty salon or parlor.

d. barber, hair stylist; haircut; barbershop. See hair.

Verbs

1. beautify; make up, glamorize, do, paint; adorn, embellish (See ornament); prettify; style. Slang, put on one's face, doll or gussy up.

2. look good, shine, radiate, glow. Informal, look like a million dollars, beggar description.

Adjectives

1. (physically beautiful) beautiful, beauteous, handsome, attractive, fetching, prepossessing; pretty, lovely, graceful, elegant; delicate, dainty, refined; fair, personable, comely, seemly, bonny, good-looking, eye-filling, eye-catching, cute; photogenic, telegenic, picturesque; well-favored, [well] built, well made, well formed, well proportioned, curvaceous (See rotundity); proper, shapely; symmetrical, regular, harmonious, sightly. Informal, easy on the eyes, sight for sore eyes, cutesy, dishy, nifty, stunning, devastating, breathtaking, long on looks, past gorgeous, [well-]built, hunky. Slang, drop-dead, fly, phat, zanzy, killer, against the law.

2. (producing a feeling of beauty) brilliant, shining, radiant; splendid, resplendent, dazzling, glowing; glossy, sleek; rich, gorgeous, superb, magnificent, grand, fine, sublime.

3. (artistically beautiful) artistic, aesthetic; picturesque, well composed, well grouped; enchanting, attractive, becoming, ornamental; undeformed, undefaced, unspotted; spotless, immaculate; perfect, flawless (See perfection).

4. beautifying, cosmetic; ornamental, decorative.

Adverbs — beautifully, prettily, handsomely, etc.

Phrases — beauty is only skin deep; Monday's child is fair of face.

Quotations — The face that launched a thousand ships (Christopher Marlowe), Beauty is the gift of God (Aristotle), Beauty is in the eye of the beholder (Margaret Hungerford), A thing of beauty is a joy forever ( John Keats), Beauty is truth, truth beauty ( John Keats), A beautiful woman is a practical poet (Emerson), She walks in beauty like the night (Lord Byron), A pretty girl is like a melody (Irving Berlin).

Antonyms, See ugliness.

II

(Roget's IV) n.

1. [A pleasing physical quality]

Syn. attractiveness, grace, loveliness, comeliness, fairness, prettiness, handsomeness, pulchritude, charm, delicacy, exquisiteness, elegance, harmony, attraction, appeal, fascination, allurement, shapeliness, majesty, magnificence, good looks, winsomeness, glamour, bloom, radiance, class*.

Ant. ugliness*, homeliness, deformity.

2. [An exalted mental or moral quality]

Syn. value, merit, excellence; see virtue 1 .

3. [Use or value]

Syn. advantage, attraction, excellence, worth; see advantage 3 .

4. [A beautiful thing or person, particularly a woman]

Syn. goddess, belle, ornament, attraction, vision, picture, belle chose (French), Siren, Circe, enchantress, seductress, Venus, femme fatale, charmer, angel, looker*, eyeful*, knockout*, dreamboat*, dish*, doll*, stunner*, good-looker*, sex goddess*, fox*, ten*.

Ant. witch*, blemish*, fright.

III

(Roget's 3 Superthesaurus) n.

1. attractiveness prettiness, comeliness, fairness, loveliness, good looks, appeal, pulchritude, allure, charm. ''A fading flower.''—Bible. ''Silent eloquence.''— French proverb. ''God's handwriting.''— Emerson. ''The power by which a woman charms a lover and terrifies a husband.''— Ambrose Bierce.

2. belle goddess, *babe, *fox, *looker, *knockout, sex symbol, enchantress, siren, *vision, *dreamboat, *doll, Venus.

ANT.: 1. ugliness, repulsiveness, plainness. 2. hag, Quasimodo, dog, eyesore

IV

(Roget's Thesaurus II) noun 1. A person regarded as physically attractive: belle (used of a woman), lovely, stunner. Slang: babe, doll, hunk (used of a man), knockout, looker, stud (used of a man). See BEAUTIFUL. 2. A special feature or quality that confers superiority: distinction, excellence, merit, perfection, virtue. See GOOD.