beau ideal
noun
a conception of perfect beauty.
Jump To:
-
beau ideal
-
beau idéal
beau idéalnounperfect beauty or excellence
beau ideal
Americannoun
-
beaus ideal,
plural
-
beaux ideal,
plural
-
beau ideals
plural
-
a conception of perfect beauty.
-
a model of excellence.
beau idéal
British
/ bo ideal /
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of beau ideal
First recorded in 1795–1805, beau ideal is from French beau idéal literally, “ideal beauty.” See beau, ideal
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
It’s not surprising that Mr. Serrano found his way to Ms. Wilson, who, like Mr. Duncan, the author’s beau ideal of a player, “banks in beauty.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 21, 2025
Their friendship was the beau ideal of warrior comrades.
From Washington Post ● Jul. 8, 2022
His birthplace, Urbino, was also that of Raphael, the beau ideal to whom all painters aspired.
From The Guardian ● Feb. 16, 2013
Arsenal's manager, Arsene Wenger, is one of soccer's great self-dooming visionaries, a gaunt Frenchman who'd rather lose matches than sacrifice his beau ideal of how to play the game.
From Slate ● Apr. 14, 2011
He seems, indeed, to be the delight of human kind, as their beau ideal of human nature.
From The Works of Daniel Webster, Volume 1 by Daniel Webster
Will’s beau idéal, Ronald Reagan, used it frequently on the rubber-chicken-and-peas circuit.
From Salon ● Dec. 20, 2025
It dominated the public discussion, especially among young English economists in training, for whom the brilliant, dashing, socially connected Keynes was a beau idéal.
From The Guardian ● Aug. 18, 2017
That I, Captain Levee, who had commanded his vessels so long—I, the very beau idéal of a privateersman, a reckless, extravagant dare-devil, should also presume to have scruples, was too much for him.
From The Privateersman by Frederick Marryat
After this beau idéal of a morning toilet comes the ante-prandial drill.
From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 08, No. 45, July, 1861 by Various
She is a fair vision, the beau idéal of a poet's first mistress; but has few mortal lineaments.
From The Life of Friedrich Schiller Comprehending an Examination of His Works by Thomas Carlyle
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.
