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 coloring 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. Shaks., 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, Princess, 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.
1653. Jer. Taylor, Serm. for Year, xviii. 242 (in Webster). Menander in the Comedy brings in a man turning his wife from his house because she stain’d 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, Gard. Dau., 57. Such a lord is Love, And Beauty such a mistress of the world.
II. concretely.
5. A beautiful person or thing; esp. a beautiful woman. (Often used ironically).
1483. Caxton, Gold. Leg., 273/2. I haue loued the ouer late, thou beaulte.
1596. Shaks., 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.
b. collectively, The beautiful women, etc.
1611. Bible, 2 Sam. i. 19. The beauty of Israel is slaine vpon thy high places.
1613. Shaks., 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.
6. 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.
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. Gwillim, 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. poetical adjs., as beauty-beaming, -blooming, -blushing, -breathing, -bright, -clad, -waning. b. Also beauty-bloom, beautiful tint or color; beauty-manner, the bearing of a ‘beauty’; † beauty-mock, an imitation of beauty; beauty-proof a., proof against the influence of beauty; beauty-sleep, the sleep secured before midnight; beauty-wash, a liquid employed to preserve or heighten beauty, a cosmetic.
a. 1594. Shaks., 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.
b. 1853. Kingsley, Hypatia, xxv. 318. Young Apollo, with the *beauty-bloom upon his chin!
1598. Sylvester, Du Bartas, II. iv. IV. Argt. (1641), 227. Achabs Stock, With his proud Queen (a painted *Beauty-mock).
1753. Richardson, Grandison (1781), III. xiv. 105. I am *Beauty-proof.
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.’
1709. Steele, Tatler, No. 34, ¶ 2. The only true Cosmetick or *Beauty-Wash in the World.
