beautiful

Also found in: Dictionary, Thesaurus, Encyclopedia, Wikipedia.

Like this video? Subscribe to our free daily email and get a new idiom video every day!

beautiful people

Stylish, glamorous, and often wealthy people admired by others. I wish we were as cool as them—man, they are really the beautiful people.

small is beautiful

The belief, perspective, or mindset that things of a smaller scale are more aesthetically pleasing than those of a larger scale. Can be hyphenated if used before a noun as a modifier. The famed architect always incorporates a small-is-beautiful philosophy into all the buildings he designs. A lot of people think they need a big car as a status symbol, but I've always believed that small is beautiful.

the body beautiful

The conception of an ideal physical beauty. While we tend to focus on women, we forget that ideas of the body beautiful also cause stress, anxiety, and depression for many men, too.

the beautiful people

1 fashionable, glamorous, and privileged people. 2 (in the 1960s) hippies.

1 1995 Singapore: Rough Guide The coolest address in town, and a magnet for the beautiful people.

the body beautiful

an ideal of physical beauty.

1992 Mother Jones About 75,000 women a year elect to have cosmetic surgery, spurred on by ubiquitous images of the body beautiful.

small is beautiful

the belief that something small-scale is better than a large-scale equivalent.

Small is Beautiful is the title of a book by E. F. Schumacher , published in 1973 . The phrase is best known through its adoption as a slogan by environmentalists.

beautiful

mod. very satisfying; excellent. Man, this place is beautiful! You got your own sink and toilet right in the room and good strong bars to keep the riffraff out.

beautiful people, the

The fashionable social set, individuals who are in vogue and widely emulated and envied. Although general use of this term began in the mid-1960s—Diana Vreeland, the editor of Vogue magazine, is often credited with inventing it—it appeared even earlier as the title of a William Saroyan play of 1941. It was given further currency by the Beatles song “Baby You’re a Rich Man” (1967) by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, which contains the line, “How does it feel to be one of the beautiful people?” Katherine Hall Page used the phrase in her mystery The Body in the Big Apple (1999), with its numerous descriptions of expensive New York restaurants and elegant parties. Also see jet set.