Sleeping Beauty

American  

noun

1. a beautiful princess, the heroine of a popular fairy tale, awakened from a charmed sleep by the kiss of the prince who is her true love.

2. (italics) the fairy tale itself.

3. (italics) a ballet (1889) by Tchaikovsky.

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“Sleeping Beauty” Cultural  

1. A fairy tale from the collection of Charles Perrault, about a beautiful princess cast into a deep sleep through a jealous fairy's curse. Sleeping Beauty is awakened at last by the kiss of a prince.

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Example Sentences

A worker, for instance, carefully sculpting the concrete on Sleeping Beauty Castle just months before opening while a narrator speaks of the park’s rising cost.

From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 22, 2026

Animals emerge from hibernation, like Sleeping Beauty woken from her death-like 100-year sleep.

From Salon • Apr. 20, 2025

Over 20 years with the company, he danced leads across several productions, including Giselle, Sleeping Beauty, Don Quixote, Swan Lake and Romeo and Juliet.

From BBC • Nov. 17, 2024

Imaginative design, be it Malibu’s Getty Villa or Sleeping Beauty Castle, are not just a balm but therapeutic, allowing us to embody idealized versions of ourselves.

From Los Angeles Times • Jul. 18, 2024

I have theater-sized posters from the Pacific Northwest Ballet’s productions of Romeo and Juliet and The Sleeping Beauty.

From "The Sea in Winter" by Christine Day