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• Sleeping Beauty
  Sleeping Beauty

  noun

  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.
• “Sleeping Beauty”
  “Sleeping Beauty”

  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.

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 world premiere by Gregory Spears casts a veil of dream-like haunting over the story of Sleeping Beauty.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 26, 2026

Alicia is bringing Aurora to life for the stage adaptation of Sleeping Beauty by Central Theatre in Chatham this festive period.

From BBC • Dec. 30, 2025

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

From Salon • Apr. 20, 2025

Disney’s first live-action Maleficent film, starring Jolie as the evil fairy who curses Sleeping Beauty, earned $759.9 million worldwide in its 2014 release, while “Maleficent: Mistress of Evil” grossed $491.7 million globally five years later.

From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 21, 2024

To cope, I pretended I was destined for a different life, just like Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, the Little Princess and, of course, Alice.

From "Three Little Words: A Memoir" by Ashley Rhodes-Courter