a conception of perfect beauty.
a model of excellence.
First recorded in 1795–1805, beau ideal is from French beau idéal literally, “ideal beauty.” See beau, ideal
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
When I ask for his American political beau ideal, he says Alexander Hamilton.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 2, 2026
Their friendship was the beau ideal of warrior comrades.
From Washington Post • Jul. 8, 2022
Lipsyte: One of the reasons that the older reporters were antagonistic to him, besides the fact that he wasn’t laconic like Joe Louis, their beau ideal, was the unorthodoxy of his style.
From Slate • Jun. 4, 2016
Or so goes the famous line by Irving Howe, the beau ideal of the politically engaged writer and a founder of the left-wing intellectual magazine Dissent.
From New York Times • Jul. 2, 2014
He was himself also big and strong, and about twenty-eight years of age—altogether I should say, as far as appearance went, the beau ideal of a man.
From Missing Friends Being the Adventures of a Danish Emigrant in Queensland (1871-1880) by Weitemeyer, Thorvald
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
