houri
Americannoun
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houris
plural
noun
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(in Muslim belief) any of the nymphs of Paradise
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any alluring woman
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of houri
1730–40; < French < Persian hūrī < Arabic ḥūr plural of ḥaurāʾ gazelle-eyed (woman)
Explanation
A houri is an extremely beautiful young woman. In Islam, a houri exists in Paradise as a divine companion for those believers who have died. The houri is an important figure in Islam, appearing several times in the Quran. Though they are described as feminine, they appear as both male and female, acting as companions or guides for faithful Muslims. Houris are often depicted as beautiful young virgins, and this idea has been transferred to European cultures, in which a houri is simply a "voluptuous woman." The Persian root, huri, means "nymph in Paradise," from the Arabic haura, "beautifully dark-eyed."
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:
And for decades, Kate Moss has been imprinted on nearly everyone’s mental screen saver as a languorously gaunt, plump-lipped houri with an expression of cryptic jadedness that recalls one of those umber-eyed Parisian Pierrots.
From New York Times ● Sep. 28, 2012
Last week Johore rejoiced in a new houri, the shift being directly due to Adolf Hitler's war against England.
From Time Magazine Archive
Tom pooh-poohs this project and is much more susceptible to a cocktail houri and budding lady poet named Cynthia Vail, who shows him a few of her lines.
From Time Magazine Archive
On the other hand, Anderson, the lady may be as beautiful as the fabulous houri and as devilish as Delilah.
From Anderson Crow, Detective by George Barr McCutcheon
We hope that houri melted entirely away in the window; but we certainly did not stay to see.
From The Wit and Humor of America, Volume II. (of X.) by Marshall Pinckney Wilder
A new version of The Nutcracker, with teddy bear dancers as sugar plum fairies, Arabian houris and Chinese pandas, is delicate, funny, winning.
From Time Magazine Archive
Instead of the fairy-tale land of kohl-eyed houris and snake charmers, the subcontinent here seems to be a domesticated place of hospital corridors, puddly lanes and gently twittering birds.
From Time Magazine Archive
Since Plautus originally wrote it, this musical is more than 2,000 years old, but the situations are still funny, the houris are delectable, and Zero Mostel is a pluperfect master of the comic revels.
From Time Magazine Archive
If he had conceived the idea that he had already entered Paradise, the big-whiskered jolly tars, instead of the houris he might have expected to welcome him, must quickly have shown him his mistake.
From The Three Midshipmen by Victor Prout
The houris, who have been praying over him the whole day, have covered him with garlands of flowers.
From The Pobratim A Slav Novel by P. Jones
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.
