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Beauty is only skin deep

Cultural  

  1. Physical beauty is superficial and is not as important as a person's intellectual, emotional, and spiritual qualities.

beauty is only skin deep Idioms  

  1. External attractiveness has no relation to goodness or essential quality. This maxim was first stated by Sir Thomas Overbury in his poem “A Wife” (1613): “All the carnall beauty of my wife is but skin-deep.“

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.

It’s hard to grow up being told beauty is only skin deep, only to see it valued above nearly all else.

From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 2, 2022

What she needs to learn is that true beauty is only skin deep.

From Salon • Aug. 26, 2019

They’re the windows to her soul, after all, and as a flag-waving feminist, Jamie knows that beauty is only skin deep.

From Time • Aug. 23, 2014

But Sainsbury's reminds the Independent that beauty is only skin deep.

From BBC • Oct. 6, 2012

Daddy said that real beauty is only skin deep.

From The Beautiful People by Beaumont, Charles

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.