“Beauty and the Beast”

Cultural  

1. A French fairy tale about a beautiful and gentle young woman who is taken to live with a man-beast in return for a good deed the Beast did for her father. Beauty is kind to the well-mannered Beast but pines for her family until the Beast allows her to visit them. Once home, Beauty delays her return until she hears that the Beast is dying without her. She returns to the Beast and brings him back to health. When she agrees to marry him, the evil spell upon him is broken, and he becomes a handsome prince. Beauty and her prince live happily ever after.

---

Example Sentences

McKellen has made dozens of films since, from superhero blockbusters to character-driven indies like “Six Degrees of Separation” and musicals such as “Beauty and the Beast” and even the maligned “Cats.”

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 8, 2026

The “Beauty and the Beast” actor, 35, already had 9 points on her record, the BBC reported, tied to offenses in October 2023, November 2023 and January 2024.

From Los Angeles Times • Jul. 16, 2025

Luke Evans, who has starred in a wide variety of movies and TV series from “The Hobbit” to “Beauty and the Beast” to “Nine Perfect Strangers,” felt his dream of playing Bond has slipped away.

From Seattle Times • Mar. 22, 2024

Listeners could probably answer him: after all, he’s best known for the scores for beloved Disney animated films like “Aladdin,” “Beauty and the Beast” and of course “The Little Mermaid.”

From New York Times • May 29, 2023

As an example of the latter may be taken a “husk-myth,” which is a valuable contribution to the literature of the “Beauty and the Beast” cycle.

From Indian Fairy Tales by Anonymous