embellish

en-verb

embellish (third-person singular simple present embellishes, present participle embellishing, simple past and past participle embellished)

embellishes (present singular third-person)
embellishing (participle present)
embellished (participle past)
embellished (past)

From Middle English embelishen, from Old French embellir, from em- + bel.

The old book cover was embellished with golden letters

He was a notable patron of the arts who lavishly embellished his royal residences and rebuilt and enlarged Westminster Abbey, destined as the burialplace of himself and many of his successors, in honor of his patron saint, Edward the Confessor.

1998, C.H. Knowles, “Henry III (1207-1272; r. 1216-72)”, in Medieval England: An Encyclopedia, Garland Publishing, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 345, column 2:

To make more beautiful and attractive by adding ornamentation; to decorate.


curvaceous

en-adj

curvaceous (comparative more curvaceous, superlative most curvaceous)

more curvaceous (comparative)
most curvaceous (superlative)

From curve + -aceous. Originally American English, 1930s.

He watched her walk, upon curvaceous legs, to the edge of the bed. For just a second, she smiled down at him.

1962, M. E. Knerr, The Sex Life of the Gods:

Anya is tall, gorgeous and curvaceous, all of which I enjoy sexually, especially the curvaceous part: I enjoy squeezing and grabbing all the sexy, abundant parts of her body.

2023 May 13, Kitty Drake, “This is how we do it: ‘A tired, throwaway midweek shag doesn’t interest me’”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

(of a woman) Having shapely and voluptuous curves; curvy.


ten

From Middle English ten, tene, from Old English tīen, from Proto-West Germanic *tehun, from Proto-Germanic *tehun, from Proto-Indo-European *déḱm̥. Cognate with Scots ten, tene (“ten”), West Frisian tsien (“ten”), Saterland Frisian tjoon (“ten”), North Frisian tiin (“ten”). See also teen.

There is a melody upon the Earth as though ten thousand streams all sang together for their homes that they had forsaken in the hills.

1905, Lord Dunsany [i.e., Edward Plunkett, 18th Baron of Dunsany], “The Sayings of Slid (whose Soul is by the Sea)”, in The Gods of Pegāna, London: [Charles] Elkin Mathews, […], →OCLC, page 15:

The number occurring after nine and before eleven, represented in Arabic numerals (base ten) as 10 and in Roman numerals as X.

tammá

the cardinal number occurring after 9 and before 11

十

じゅう, jū; とお, tō


ten

en-noun

ten (countable and uncountable, plural tens)

not touch something with a ten-foot pole

I was in the Woodley Park–Zoo in D.C. and mom and sister were waiting to see the pandas, so me and my pops broke away to check out the monkey house. Well, there was a beautiful teacher, I mean we're talking a ten, she was blond, had a low-cut dress on, just gorgeous. And she has about eight or nine students and she's pointing out all the different monkeys. And me and my dad noticed this huge orangutan kind of fiddling with himself. And on close [censored] And we kept checking it out and he was looking directly at the teacher. Well, a couple minutes passed by [censored] he proceeds to [censored] that's when the teacher noticed and, you know, took the kids away very hurriedly. But I looked at my dad and said, you know, they're so much like us.

2006 May 9, Penn Jillette, Michael Goudeau, quoting Chris, 22:22 from the start, in Penn Radio:

An Office Ten is a person who falls somewhere between average to mildly good-looking in the world at large but skyrockets to wildly attractive within the confines of an open-concept desk plan.

2023 September 11, Danielle Cohen, “Why Am I Attracted to My Coworker? Meet ‘The Office Ten’”, in New York Magazine:

(countable, US, slang) A perfect specimen, (particularly) a physically attractive person.

At the 1,000-metres post we gave a ten, which raised our lead to 1⅔ lengths; the Belgians were rowing hard, but one felt that they still had plenty of spurting power.

1911, The Cambridge Review, volume 32, page 486:

Morris gave a ten, and an unbelievable surge ran through the boat, one that I had never felt before.

1982, Stanley French, Aspects of Downing history, page 105:

(countable, rowing) The act of rowing ten strokes flat out.


picture

Krio: pikchɔ

→ Welsh: pictiwr

/ˈpɪt͡ʃə(ɹ)/

From Middle English pycture, from Old French picture, itself from Latin pictūra (“the art of painting, a painting”), from pingō (“I paint”). Doublet of pictura.

der

The garden is a real picture at this time of year.

it was heartening to see a young Indian football team Mata had invited to Manchester. His face was a picture when he listened to the little footballers sing a team song for him.

2018 January 1, Donald McRae, “The Guardian footballer of the year 2017: Juan Mata”, in the Guardian:


handsome

en-adj

handsome (comparative more handsome or handsomer, superlative most handsome or handsomest)

more handsome (comparative)
handsomer (comparative)
most handsome (superlative)
handsomest (superlative)

→ Japanese: ハンサム

From Middle English handsum, hondsom, equivalent to hand + -some. Compare Dutch handzaam, German Low German handsaam. The original sense was ‘easy to handle or use’, hence ‘suitable’ and ‘apt, clever’ (mid 16th century), giving rise to the current appreciatory senses (late 16th century).

I was struck dumb. Here was the most handsome man I’d ever seen in my life coming out of the surf.

Scott was a man then who looked like a boy with a face between handsome and pretty. He had very fair wavy hair, a high forehead, excited and friendly eyes and a delicate long-lipped Irish mouth that, on a girl, would have been the mouth of a beauty. His chin was well built and he had good ears and a handsome, almost beautiful, unmarked nose.

1964, Ernest Hemingway, “Scott Fitzgerald”, in A Moveable Feast, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, →OCLC, page 149:

Having a pleasing appearance, good-looking, attractive, particularly:

Of a man or boy: attractively manly, having a pleasing face and overall effect.

She was either handsome or her uniform created a flattering effect but—being very nearsighted—he couldn't tell from this distance.

Of a woman: statuesque, beautiful in a masculine or otherwise imposing way.

সুন্দরী

of a woman: striking, impressive and elegantly proportioned, though not conventionally beautiful

That is one handsome tree you've got there.

I saw, I confess, some good dancing and some handsome women, which was all my pleasure.

1661–1669 (date written; Gregorian calendar), Samuel Pepys, Mynors Bright, transcriber, “(please specify the entry date)”, in Henry B[enjamin] Wheatley, editor, The Diary of Samuel Pepys […], volume (please specify |volume=I to X), London: George Bell & Sons […]; Cambridge: Deighton Bell & Co., published 1893–1899, →OCLC:

At the farther end of this great lamp-lit apartment was another doorway closed in with heavy Oriental-looking curtains, quite unlike those that hung before the doors of our own rooms, and here stood two particularly handsome girl mutes, their heads bowed upon their bosoms and their hands crossed in an attitude of humble submission.

1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:

On the opposite side of the street, on the corner, is the city hall, a very handsome building of brick and stone.

1916, On H.R. 4683, site for post-office building at Chicago, Ill, page 117:

The mother, Ekaterina Pavlovna, who at one time had been handsome, but now, asthmatic, depressed, vague, and over-feeble for her years, tried to entertain me with conversation about painting. Having heard from her daughter that I might come to Shelkovka, she had hurriedly recalled two or three of my landscapes which she had seen in exhibitions in Moscow, and now asked what I meant to express by them.

1917, Anton Chekhov, translated by Constance Garnett, The Darling and Other Stories, Project Gutenberg, →ISBN, page 71:

Often, human mortals describe their visits to the Tuatha's [places] in similar terms: they were great bright places, occupied by exceedingly handsome men and women, that sported wonderful crystal chairs, inexhaustible supplies of mead or ale ...

2006, Richard Leviton, The Gods in Their Cities, iUniverse, →ISBN, page 44:


hot

hot (comparative hotter, superlative hottest)

hotter (comparative)
hottest (superlative)

From Middle English hot, hat, from Old English hāt, from Proto-Germanic *haitaz (“hot”), from Proto-Indo-European *keHy- (“hot; to heat”). Cognate with Scots hate, hait (“hot”), North Frisian hiet (“hot”), Saterland Frisian heet (“hot”), West Frisian hjit (“hot”).

der

Alternative forms: hawt, hott

That stripper is hot!

(figurative) Relating to excited emotions.

(colloquial, of a person) Very physically or sexually attractive.

Relating to excited emotions.
Very physically or sexually attractive.

There was only one problem. Paul was HIV positive. And just a few weeks after his hot encounter with Max, a letter arrived for him, containing some legalese about HIV infection being a criminal act, with a few chilling words

2010, Rick R. Reed, Moving Toward The Light, →ISBN, page 50:

(colloquial) Sexual or sexy; involving sexual intercourse or sexual excitement.

This kind of chili pepper is way too hot for my taste.

(of food) Spicy, pungent, piquant, as some chilis and other spices are.


cast

Etymology tree
Proto-Germanic *kas-
Proto-Germanic *kastōną
Old Norse kastabor.
Middle English casten
English cast
From Middle English casten, from Old Norse kasta (“to throw, cast, overturn”), from Proto-Germanic *kastōną (“to throw, cast”), of unknown origin.
Cognate with Scots cast (“to cast, throw”), Danish kaste (“to throw”), Swedish kasta (“to throw, cast, fling, toss, discard”), Icelandic kasta (“to pitch, toss”). In the sense of "flinging", displaced native warp.
The senses relating to broadcasting are based on that same term; compare -cast.

cog

Her features had a delicate cast to them.

Using a tungsten-balanced film outdoors results in a blue cast to the photo.

2004, Betsy Brill, Photojournalism: The Professional's Approach, page 240:

He stared down at his champagne glass with narrowed eyes and a hard cast to his mouth.

2007, Lindsay Armstrong, The Australian's Housekeeper Bride, page 78:


slim

en-adj

slim (comparative slimmer, superlative slimmest)

slimmer (comparative)
slimmest (superlative)

Borrowing from Low German or Dutch slim (“bad, sly, clever”), from Middle Dutch slim (“bad, crooked”), from Old Dutch *slimb, from Proto-West Germanic *slimb, from Proto-Germanic *slimbaz (“oblique, crooked”). The sense development would have been "slanting, cunning" (Dutch) > "insignificant, slight" and then "thin, graceful" in English, a shift that Liberman calls an "incredible amelioration" of word meaning.
The pejorative sense found in Low German and Dutch is also found preserved in the archaic English noun slim (“worthless or lazy person”), also comparable to the South African use of the adjective as "crafty, sly."
Compare Dutch slim (“smart, clever, crafty”), Middle High German slimp (“slanting, awry”), German schlimm (“bad”), West Frisian slim (“bad, dire”).

cog

Movie stars are usually slim, attractive, and young.

(of a person or a person's build) Slender in an attractive way.

Slender; thin.
Slender in an attractive way.


eyesore

From Middle English eye sor, eie-sor, eyen soore, eæge-sare, equivalent to eye + sore.

The building, towering over its surroundings with its square concrete frame and reflective walls of gold-tinted glass, was an eyesore visible throughout the city.

Two entrants shared this award for their work on two quite different stations, but with the same purpose of bringing a redundant station building back into use for the benefit of the community, with the added result of conserving an historic building. Saltash Town Council bought Saltash station building after it had become very decrepit and 'an eyesore' - such that it was nearly pulled down to make way for housing.

2021 December 15, Robin Leleux, “Awards honour the best restoration projects: The Network Rail Community Award: Saltash and Stow”, in RAIL, number 946, page 58:

A displeasing sight; something prominently ugly or unsightly.


busted

en-adj

busted (comparative more busted, superlative most busted)

more busted (comparative)
most busted (superlative)

From bust + -ed. See bust (Etymology 1).

She was cute, but all her friends were busted.

ok this gals bod is hot but her face is busted

2004 July 30, Ms Pnoopie Pnats, “talking about hot or not...”, in alt.support.shyness (Usenet):


comely

comely (comparative comelier or more comely, superlative comeliest or most comely)

comelier (comparative)
more comely (comparative)
comeliest (superlative)
most comely (superlative)

The adjective is derived from Middle English comly, comli, cumly, cumlich (“of a person: beautiful, handsome, etc.; of noble birth, bearing, or character; of behaviour: appropriate, becoming; of an event: convenient; favourable; of a thing: beautiful, wonderful; fitting, proper”), from Old English cymlīċ, cȳmlīċ (“beautiful, comely; splendid; convenient”), from cȳme (“beautiful, comely; splendid; exquisite, fine”) + -līċ (suffix meaning ‘like; relating to’ forming adjectives). Cȳme is derived from Proto-Germanic *kūmiz (“delicate; feeble”), from *kūmalīkaz (“dear; pitiful”), probably related to *kūmaz, *kūmijaz (“pitiful; frail, weak”), from Proto-Indo-European *gewH- (“to call, name; to call on, invoke; to cry, cry out”). The word was influenced by come (verb).
The verb is derived from the adjective.
cognates
* Middle Dutch komelick, komlick
* Middle High German gomelīh, komelīh

inh

a comely woman

Not once perceive their foul disfigurement, / But boaſt themſelves more comely than before

1634 October 9 (first performance), [John Milton], edited by H[enry] Lawes, A Maske Presented at Ludlow Castle, 1634: […] [Comus], London: […] [Augustine Matthews] for Hvmphrey Robinson, […], published 1637, →OCLC; reprinted as Comus: […] (Dodd, Mead & Company’s Facsimile Reprints of Rare Books; Literature Series; no. I), New York, N.Y.: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1903, →OCLC, page 3:

This is properly Venus, Beauty, vvhich kindles the fire of Love in Mankinde: […] VVe ſee many perſons exact, and unaccuſtomable in every part, deſtitute of this grace and comlineſſe; others leſſe perfect in thoſe particular conditions, excellently graceful and comely; […]

1656, Tho[mas] Stanley, “[Plato.] A Platonick Discourse, Written in Italian by John Picus Earl of Mirandula, in Explication of a Sonnet by Hieronimo Benivieni.”, in The History of Philosophy, the Second Volume, volume II, London: […] Humphrey Moseley, and Thomas Dring: […], →OCLC, 5th part (Containing the Academick Philosophers), 3rd part of the discourse, scenes VI–VIII, page 116:

He that is comely, when old and decrepit, ſurely was very beautiful, when he was young.

1662 November 19 (Gregorian calendar); first published 1692, Robert South, “A Sermon Preached at the Cathedral-Church of St. Paul’s, November the 9th, 1662 [Julian calendar]”, in Twelve Sermons Preached upon Several Occasions. […], volume I, London: […] J[ohn] H[eptinstall] for Thomas Bennet, […], →OCLC, page 55:

[T]he Bishop of London [Humphrey Henchman], who sat there in a pew, made a purpose for him by the pulpitt, do give the last blessing to the congregation; which was, he being a comely old man, a very decent thing, methought. The Lieutenant of the Tower, Sir J[ohn] Robinson, would needs have me by coach home with him, and sending word home to my house I did go and dine with him, his ordinary table being very good, and his lady [Anne Whitmore] a very high-carriaged but comely big woman; I was mightily pleased with her.

1664 March 9 (date written; Gregorian calendar), Samuel Pepys, Mynors Bright, transcriber, “February 28th, 1663–1664 (Lord’s Day)”, in Henry B[enjamin] Wheatley, editor, The Diary of Samuel Pepys […], volume IV, London: George Bell & Sons […]; Cambridge: Deighton Bell & Co., published 1894, →OCLC, page 58:

Then had I come, preventing Sheba's Queen, / To ſee the comelieſt of the Sons of Men; […]

1718, Mat[thew] Prior, “Solomon on the Vanity of the World. A Poem in Three Books.”, in Poems on Several Occasions, London: […] Jacob Tonson […], and John Barber […], →OCLC, book II (Pleasure), page 448:

He [Friday] vvas a comely, handsome Fellovv, perfectly vvell made, vvith ſtrait long Limbs, not too large, tall and vvell ſhap'd; and, as I reckon, about tvventy-ſix Years of Age.

1719 May 6 (Gregorian calendar), [Daniel Defoe], The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, […], London: […] W[illiam] Taylor […], →OCLC, page 243:

Near to the winter fire sat a beautiful young girl, so like that last that Scrooge believed it was the same, until he saw her, now a comely matron, sitting opposite her daughter.

1843 December 19, Charles Dickens, “Stave Two. The First of the Three Spirits.”, in A Christmas Carol. In Prose. Being a Ghost Story of Christmas, London: Chapman & Hall, […], →OCLC, page 68:

As the painter looked at the gracious and comely form he had so skilfully mirrored in his art, a smile of pleasure passed across his face, and seemed about to linger there.

1891, Oscar Wilde, chapter I, in The Picture of Dorian Gray, London, New York, N.Y., Melbourne, Vic.: Ward Lock & Co., →OCLC, page 2:

The chief's name was To-jo, and his household consisted of seven females and himself. These women were much more comely, or rather less hideous than those of Tsa's people; one of them, even, was almost pretty, being less hairy and having a rather nice skin, with high coloring.

1918 September–November, Edgar Rice Burroughs, “The Land That Time Forgot”, in The Blue Book Magazine, Chicago, Ill.: Story-press Corp., →OCLC; republished as chapter IX, in Hugo Gernsback, editor, Amazing Stories, part II, number 12, New York, N.Y.: Experimenter Publishing, March 1927, →OCLC, page 1143, column 2:

Of a person: attractive or pleasing to look at; beautiful, handsome; also, attractive but not particularly beautiful or handsome.

миловиден

of a person: attractive or pleasing to look at — see also beautiful, handsome

hyvännäköinen

of a person: attractive but not particularly beautiful or handsome

In ſhootinge at the prickes, haſtye and quicke drawinge is neyther ſure nor yet comely.

1544 (date written; published 1571), Roger Ascham, Toxophilus, the Schole, or Partitions, of Shooting. […], London: […] Thomas Marshe, →OCLC; republished in The English Works of Roger Ascham, […], London: […] R[obert] and J[ames] Dodsley, […], and J[ohn] Newbery, […], 1761, →OCLC, book 2, page 162:

Of a thing: beautiful, elegant, well-composed; also, delicate, fine.


comely

en-verb

comely (third-person singular simple present comelies, present participle comelying, simple past and past participle comelied)

comelies (present singular third-person)
comelying (participle present)
comelied (participle past)
comelied (past)

One diligent seruiture, skilfull to waight, / more comelieth thy table than other some eight, / That stand for to listen, or gasing about, / not minding their dutie, within nor without.

1878, Thomas Tusser, “Lessons for Waiting Seruants”, in Five Hundred Pointes of Good Husbandrie. […], London: Published for the English Dialect Society by Trübner & Co., […], →OCLC; republished as W[illiam] Payne, Sidney J[ohn Hervon] Herrtage, editors, Five Hundred Pointes of Good Husbandrie. […], London: Published for the English Dialect Society by Trübner & Co., […], 1878, →OCLC, stanza 1, page 189:

(transitive, obsolete, rare) To embellish or grace (something).


comely

en-adv

comely (comparative more comely, superlative most comely)

more comely (comparative)
most comely (superlative)

From Middle English comli, cumly, cumeliche (“beautifully, handsomely; gracefully; splendidly; fittingly, properly; well”), from Old English cȳme (adjective) (see etymology 1) + Middle English -li (suffix forming adverbs).

inh

So ſlides he dovvne vppon his greyned bat [i.e., a walking stick]; / And comely diſtant ſits he by her ſide, […]

1609, William Shakespeare, “A Louers Complaint”, in Shake-speares Sonnets. […], London: By G[eorge] Eld for T[homas] T[horpe] and are to be sold by William Aspley, →OCLC, signature K2, verso:

T'is very good to vvaſh his hands and face often, to haue faire linnen about him, to be decently and comely attired, for ſordes vitiant, naſtineſſe defiles, & deiects any man that is ſo voluntarily, or compelled by vvant, it dulleth the ſpirits.

1621, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], “Rectifying, Retention and Evacuation”, in The Anatomy of Melancholy, […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and Iames Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition 2, section 2, member 2, page 313:

So may men praiſe their Preacher, he ſpeaks pertinently, or he contrives vvittily, or he ſpeaks comely, […]

1651, Jer[emy] Taylor, “[https://books.google.com/books?id=jEtPAQAAIAAJ&pg=RA1-PP12 [XXVIII Sermons Preached at Golden Grove; Being for the Summer Half-year, […].] To the Right Honourable and Truly Noble, Richard Lord Vaughan, Earl of Carbery, Baron of Emlin, and Molingar, Knight of the Honourable Order of the Bath]”, in ΕΝΙΑΥΤΟΣ [Eniautos]. A Course of Sermons for All the Sundays of the Year. […], 2nd edition, London: […] Richard Royston […], published 1654, →OCLC:

(archaic) Synonym of comelily (“in a comely manner: in an attractive or pleasing manner; in a manner which meets accepted moral or social norms”)


look

→ Dutch: look

→ French: look

→ Romanian: look

→ Spanish: look

→ Italian: look

some Northern Enɡlish dialects, esp. Bolton, Geordie

From Middle English loken, lokien, from Old English lōcian, from Proto-West Germanic *lōkōn. Further origin unknown, no certain cognates outside Germanic. Cognate with Scots luke, luik, leuk (“to look, see”), West Frisian lôkje, loaitsje (“to look”), Dutch loeken (“to look”), German Low German löken. Likely also related to German lugen (“to peek”), Alemannic German luege (“to look”), Yiddish לוגן (lugn). Possibly related to Sanskrit लोक् (lok, “to see, behold”) (from Proto-Indo-European *lewk- (“light”) in the sense of "illuminating" (cf. related word रुच् (ruc) "to shine, illuminate")).

unk

unknown

She got her mother’s looks.

I don’t like the look of the new design.

He tried to persuade Cicely to stay away from the ball-room for a fourth dance. […] But she said she must go back, and when they joined the crowd again her partner was haled off with a frightened look to the royal circle, […]

1909, Archibald Marshall [pseudonym; Arthur Hammond Marshall], chapter I, in The Squire’s Daughter, New York, N.Y.: Dodd, Mead and Company, published 1919, →OCLC:

(often plural) Physical appearance, visual impression.


aesthetic

en-adj

aesthetic (comparative more aesthetic, superlative most aesthetic)

more aesthetic (comparative)
most aesthetic (superlative)

From German Ästhetik or French esthétique, both from New Latin aesthēticus, itself borrowed from Ancient Greek αἰσθητικός (aisthētikós, “of sense perception”), from αἰσθάνομαι (aisthánomai, “I feel”); analysable as aesthe(sis) + -tic.
Cognates include Proto-Germanic *awiz (“obvious”), Sanskrit आविस् (āvís, “manifestly, evidently”) and Latin audiō.

cog

Coordinate term: cosmetic

It works well enough, but the shabby exterior offends his aesthetic sensibilities.

If you're anxious for to shine in the high aesthetic line as a man of culture rare,
You must get up all the germs of the transcendental terms, and plant them everywhere.

If Euston is not typically English, St. Pancras is. Its façade is a nightmare of improbable Gothic. It is fairly plastered with the aesthetic ideals of 1868, and the only beautiful thing about it is Barlow's roof. It is haunted by the stuffier kind of ghost. Yet there is something about the ordered whole of St. Pancras that would make demolition a terrible pity.

1941 August, C. Hamilton Ellis, “The English Station”, in Railway Magazine, page 358:

But he was also a natural chronicler: one senses that, even as his schemes collapsed, this aesthetic Arab Quixote knew the stories would make great material for his witty, sharp, melancholic writings.

2011, Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem: The Biography – A History of the Middle East, page 268:

Concerned with beauty, artistic effect, or appearance.


gussy up

en-verb

gussy up (third-person singular simple present gussies up, present participle gussying up, simple past and past participle gussied up)

gussies up (present singular third-person)
gussying up (participle present)
gussied up (participle past)
gussied up (past)

You can have plain green beans, or gussie them up with a bit of cheese and onion.

WWE and WCW gussied up the ritual with a lot of shock-and-awe pyrotechnics and the most innovative use of video graphics this side of MTV. Not so Extreme Championship Wrestling.

2006, Thomas Hackett, Slaphappy: Pride, Prejudice, and Professional Wrestling, New York, NY: HarperCollins, →ISBN, page 22:

The trouble arrives when he tries to gussy up his psychologist’s hat with his more elaborate public intellectual’s attire.

2021 September 29, Jennifer Szalai, “In ‘Rationality,’ Steven Pinker Sticks Up (Again) for Reason’s Role in Human Progress”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

(informal, transitive) To make fancy or attractive, as by artificial or contrived means.


beautiful

en-adj

beautiful (comparative more beautiful, superlative most beautiful)

more beautiful (comparative)
most beautiful (superlative)

grotesque

antonym(s) of “possessing charm and attractive”

From Middle English bewteful, beautefull (“attractive to the eye, beautiful”), equivalent to beauty + -ful. In this sense, largely displaced Old English fæġer (whence fair).

wonderful

any of these can be prefixed with an intensifier such as bloody, damned or just

Anyone who has ever met her thought she was absolutely beautiful.

There's a beautiful lake by the town.

It's rather like a beautiful Inverness cloak one has inherited. Much too good to hide away, so one wears it instead of an overcoat and pretends it's an amusing new fashion.

1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 5, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:

It is a beautiful kitchen! — It is beautiful.
Audio (US): (file)

2016, VOA Learning English (public domain)


fit

Unknown, possibly from Old English fitt (“conflict”). Compare Cornish fit (“game match, bout”); or else, probably cognate with Italian fitta (“pain, especially sudden and stabbing pain”).
See more at Latin fīgere.

cog

(medicine) A sudden and vigorous appearance of a symptom over a short period of time.


fly

en-adj

fly (comparative flier or flyer, superlative fliest or flyest)

flier (comparative)
flyer (comparative)
fliest (superlative)
flyest (superlative)

Uncertain; probably from the verb or noun.

He's pretty fly.

when Ortega got fixed up in his fly duds like that, an ord'nary man's overcoat wouldn't make 'im a pair o' socks.

1888, Frederick Thickstun Clark, A Mexican Girl, page 270:

Give it to me, baby! Uh huh, uh huh! And all the girlies say, I’m pretty fly for a white guy.

1998, “Pretty Fly (For a White Guy)”performed by The Offspring:

Starring the light-skinned Ron O'Neal with his shoulder-length perm and fly threads, Super Fly exudes a sense of black pride as O'Neal bucks the dope game, dismisses his white girlfriend, and beats The Man at his own hustle.

2001 September 14, “Super Fly”, in Vibe, volume 9, number 9, page 252:

A fly sister rolled in with a suitcase full of hip-hop novels called The Glamorous Life, and an African brother with long dreads wanted to sell them some incense and some fake Jacob watches.

2006, Noire [pseudonym], Thug-A-Licious: An Urban Erotic Tale, New York, N.Y.: One World, Ballantine Books, →ISBN, page 169:

How NOT to Facebook / […] no naked pictures, no deep emotions (awkward), no tagging a bunch of people in a picture of some fly Nikes, no making dinner plans (just use a PHONE).

2012, Lindy West, Dan Savage, Christopher Frizzelle, How to Be a Person: The Stranger's Guide to College, Sex, Intoxicants, Tacos, and Life Itself:

Harry [Styles] and Grimmy had struck up quite a friendship with Rita [Ora] and a few weeks earlier had been seen at G-A-Y for her album launch. She tweeted a picture of the trio saying: ‘Thanks for coming my little fashionistas. Looking flyer than a mofo.’

2013, Louisa Jepson, “‘At the moment it appears I have, like 7000 girlfriends’”, in Harry Styles: Every Piece of Me, London: Simon & Schuster UK Ltd, published 2014, →ISBN, page 209:

I'm so fly, I don't even try / I get so high, I can touch the sky / Dress for myself, I don't dress for hype / I dress for myself, you dress for the likes

2019, “Balenciaga”, performed by Princess Nokia:

(slang) Well dressed, smart in appearance; in style, cool.


cute

cute (comparative cuter, superlative cutest)

cuter (comparative)
cutest (superlative)

→ Arabic: كْيُوت (kyūt), كِيُوت (kiyūt)

→ Armenian: քյութ (kʻyutʻ)

→ Dutch: kjoet

→ Japanese: キュート (kyūto)

Aphetic form of acute, originally “keenly perceptive or discerning, shrewd” (1731). Meaning transferred to “pretty, fetching” by US students (slang) c. 1834. Meaning drifted further to describe the pleasing attraction to features usually possessed by the young.

having features mainly attributed to infants and small

Let's go to the mall and look for cute girls.

Lovable, charming, attractive or pleasing, especially in a youthful, dainty, quaint or fun-spirited way.

عسول

attractive or pleasing in a youthful, dainty, quaint or fun-spirited way


fox

en-noun

fox (plural foxes or (nonstandard, dialectal) foxen)

foxes (plural)
foxen (dialectal nonstandard plural)

→ Cheyenne: vóhkéso

→ Japanese: フォックス (fokkusu)

→ Maori: pōkiha

From Middle English fox, from Old English fox (“fox”), from Proto-West Germanic *fuhs, from Proto-Germanic *fuhsaz (“fox”), from Proto-Indo-European *púḱsos (“the tailed one”), possibly from *puḱ- (“tail”).
Cognate with Scots fox (“fox”), West Frisian foks (“fox”), Fering-Öömrang North Frisian foos and Sölring and Heligoland fos, Dutch vos (“fox”), Low German vos (“fox”), German Fuchs (“fox”), Icelandic fóa (“fox”), Tocharian B päkā (“tail, chowrie”), Russian пух (pux, “down, fluff”), Sanskrit पुच्छ (púccha) (whence Torwali پوش (pūš, “fox”), Hindi पूंछ (pūñch, “tail”)).

inh

the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog

And Jerry was cute, you know, I liked him, but Frank was a total fox. And he was rougher than Jerry, you know, not so cultured.

1993, Laura Antoniou, The Marketplace, page 90:

It wasn't just that Jayne was a fox – although, fuck, was she ever a fox. That arse, those tits, those lips. They could have a really good time together.

2012, Adele Parks, Still Thinking of You:

(slang, figurative) A physically attractive man or woman.

(mechanics) A wedge driven into the split end of a bolt to tighten it.

(cartomancy) The fourteenth Lenormand card.


display

en-noun

display (countable and uncountable, plural displays)

desctree

→ Russian: диспле́й (displéj)
→ Kazakh: дисплей (displei)

From Middle English displayen, from Anglo-Norman despleier and Old French despleier, desploiier, from Medieval Latin displicare (“to unfold, display”), from Latin dis- (“apart”) + plicāre (“to fold”). Doublet of deploy.

der

The trapeze artist put on an amazing acrobatic display.


similarity

en-noun

similarity (countable and uncountable, plural similarities)

From French similarité.
Morphologically similar + -ity

Closeness of appearance to something else.


sharp

en-adj

sharp (comparative sharper, superlative sharpest)

sharper (comparative)
sharpest (superlative)

bland

antonym(s) of “having an intense and acrid flavour”

From Middle English scharp, from Old English sċearp, from Proto-West Germanic *skarp, from Proto-Germanic *skarpaz, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kerb-, from *(s)ker- (“to cut”).
Cognate with West Frisian skerp, Low German scharp, Dutch scherp, German scharf, Danish skarp. Compare Irish cearb (“keen; cutting”), Latin acerbus (“tart, bitter”), Tocharian B kärpye (“rough”), Latvian skârbs (“sharp, rough”), Russian щерба (ščerba, “notch”), Polish szczerba (“gap, dent, jag, chip, nick, notch”), Albanian harb (“rudeness”). More at shear.

better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick

You look so sharp in that tuxedo!

A sharp dresser partial to snakeskin shoes whose miniature Australian shepherd dog Saatchi is a constant fixture on family outings, [Donald] Tang's next move was to reinvent himself as a dealmaker connecting China with Hollywood amid growing demand for entertainment content in both countries.

2024 July 13, Laura Onita, Eleanor Olcott, “Shein's master of reinvention treads tricky path to IPO”, in FT Weekend, page 11:

(colloquial) Stylish, smart or attractive.


beefcake

en-noun

beefcake (countable and uncountable, plural beefcakes)

From beef + cake. In sense 1, by analogy with cheesecake (“an image of a sexy young woman”).

The audience goes bugshit. The security beefcakes separate them and the host gets between them, talking in a voice that is soothing on top, inciteful beneath.

2014, Stephen King, Mr. Mercedes: A Novel, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN:

(informal, countable) Such a male, especially as seen as physically desirable.


stud

From Middle English stood, stod, from Old English stōd, from Proto-West Germanic *stōd, from Proto-Germanic *stōdą. Cognate with Middle Low German stōt, German Stute, Dutch stoet and Old Norse stóð.

siitoseläin

animal registered and retained for breeding

Well, I'll tell you the truth now. I ain't a for-real cowboy, but I am one hell of a stud!

1969, Waldo Salt, Midnight Cowboy, spoken by Joe Buck (Jon Voight):

Maverick, you big stud… Take me to bed or lose me forever.

1986, Jim Cash, Jack Epps Jr., Top Gun (motion picture), spoken by Charlie (Kelly McGillis):

Wow, Julia! Sounds like to me like you got your pick of any man in this room to dance with so I want you to take your time and find amongst all these young studs here tonight the coolest, most un-losery guy in the bunch

1998, Tim Herlihy, The Wedding Singer, spoken by Robbie Hart (Adam Sandler):

Those soap-opera studs and studettes sliding between satin sheets in the afternoon?

1999 December 16, Mark Wolf, “The V-chip has arrived with little fanfare”, in The Coshocton Tribune:

(colloquial) A sexually attractive, promiscuous male.


knockout

→ Belarusian: нака́ўт (nakáŭt)

→ Portuguese: nocaute, knockout

→ Russian: нока́ут (nokáut)

→ Spanish: nocaut

→ Ukrainian: нока́ут (nokáut)

1995, Rhonda K. Reinholtz et al., "Sexual Discourse and Sexual Intercourse," in P. J. Kalbfleisch and M. J. Cody, eds., Gender, Power, and Communications in Human Relationships, p. 150,
Phrases such as "she bowled me over," "she's striking," and "she's a knockout" suggest that the woman affects the man in ways he cannot mediate or control.

(informal) A very attractive person, especially a beautiful woman.


knockout

You should have seen her knockout eyes.

If the same model has beautiful hair, white teeth, glowing skin, a fit body, good hands and legs, a great wardrobe, and a knockout comp, her value on the "bookability meter" goes sky high.

2010, Ro Martinez, Modeling at Any Age, page 81:


affect

en-verb

affect (third-person singular simple present affects, present participle affecting, simple past and past participle affected)

affects (present singular third-person)
affecting (participle present)
affected (participle past)
affected (past)

From Middle English affecten, from Anglo-Norman affecter (“strive after”), Middle French affecter (“feign”), and their source, Latin affectāre (“to strive after, aim to do, pursue, imitate with dissimulation, feign”), frequentative of afficere (“to act upon, influence”) (see Etymology 1, above).

der

to affect ignorance

to affect a British accent

He managed to affect a smile despite feeling quite miserable.

Thou dost affect my manners.

c. 1605–1608, William Shakespeare, “The Life of Tymon of Athens”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene iii]:

Careless she is with artful care, / Affecting to seem unaffected.

a. 1729, William Congreve, A Hue and Cry After Fair Amoret:

He affected prescription lenses, framed in spidery gold, ground from thin slabs of pink synthetic quartz and beveled like the mirrors in a Victorian dollhouse.

1984, William Gibson, Neuromancer (Sprawl; book 1), New York, N.Y.: Ace Books, →ISBN, page 12:

(transitive) To make a show of; to put on a pretense of; to feign; to assume. To make a false display of.


horny

en-adj

horny (comparative hornier, superlative horniest)

hornier (comparative)
horniest (superlative)

(sexually aroused): → Irish: adharcach (semantic loan)

(sexually aroused): → Russian: хорни (xorni)

(sexually aroused): → Saterland Frisian: honig

From the phrase "having the horn", and similar phrases which were used to refer to male sexual arousal in the 18th century, later abbreviated to horn (a hard projection) + -y (having the quality of); initially this referred to physical sexual response in males (the male erection being analogized as a "horn"), yet later was semantically generalized to refer not only to sexual arousal but also to sexual desire in both males and females.

af

Mark Corrigan: She [the dentist] should have to wear a mask for this kind of thing. Reagan or Batman or... actually she'd look pretty horny as Batman... Jesus, no, don't!

2003, Peep Show (TV series), Funeral (episode)


pale

From Middle English pale, pal, borrowed from Old French pal, from Latin pālus (“stake, prop”). English inherited the word pole (or, rather Old English pāl) from a much older Proto-Germanic borrowing of the same Latin word.
Doublet of peel and pole.

(archaic) A territory or defensive area within a specific boundary or under a given jurisdiction.

(historical) A portion of Russia in which Jews were permitted to live (the Pale of Settlement).

Pale of Settlement
Pale of Settlement#English


horrid

en-adj

horrid (comparative horrider or more horrid, superlative horridest or most horrid)

horrider (comparative)
more horrid (comparative)
horridest (superlative)
most horrid (superlative)

Borrowed from Latin horridus (“rough, bristly, savage, shaggy, rude”), from horrere (“to bristle”). See horrent, horror, ordure.

bor

Not in the legions / Of horrid hell, can come a devil more damned / In evils, to top Macbeth.

c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene iii]:

Give colour to my pale cheek with thy blood, / that we the horrider may seem to those / Which chance to find us;

1611 April (first recorded performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Cymbeline”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene ii]:

Set out the altar! I myself will be / The priest, and boldly do those horrid rites / You shake to think on.

c. 1622, John Fletcher, Philip Massinger, “The Sea-Voyage. A Comedy.”, in Comedies and Tragedies […], London: […] Humphrey Robinson, […], and for Humphrey Moseley […], published 1647, →OCLC, Act V, scene iv:

As ſoon as vve had fired, they ſet up the horrideſt Yell, or Hovvling, partly raiſed by thoſe that vvere vvounded, and partly by thoſe that pitied and condoled the Bodies they ſavv lye dead, that I never heard any thing like it before or ſince.

1720, [Daniel Defoe], The Life, Adventures, and Pyracies, of the Famous Captain Singleton, London: […] J[ohn] Brotherton, […], J[ohn] Graves […], A[nne] Dodd, […], and T[homas] Warner, […], →OCLC, pages 69–70:

What say ye then to fair Sir Percivale, / And of the horrid foulness that he wrought,

1859, Alfred Tennyson, “Vivien”, in Idylls of the King, London: Edward Moxon & Co., […], →OCLC, page 132:


fair

en-adj

fair (comparative fairer, superlative fairest)

fairer (comparative)
fairest (superlative)

→ German: fair

→ Hebrew: פייר

→ Macedonian: фер (fer)

→ Serbo-Croatian:

Cyrillic script: фер

Latin script: fer

From Middle English fayr, feir, fager, from Old English fæġer (“beautiful”), from Proto-West Germanic *fagr, from Proto-Germanic *fagraz (“suitable, fitting, nice”), from Proto-Indo-European *peh₂ḱ- (“to fasten, place”).
Cognate with Scots fayr, fare (“fair”), Danish feir, faver, fager (“fair, pretty”), Norwegian fager (“fair, pretty”), Swedish fager (“fair, pretty”), Icelandic fagur (“beautiful, fair”), Umbrian pacer (“gracious, merciful, kind”), Slovak pekný (“good-looking, handsome, nice”). See also peace.

cog

Monday's child is fair of face.

There was once a knight who wooed a fair young maid.

He is so fayre, withoutten les, / he semys full well to sytt on des.

15th c., “[The Creation]”, in Wakefield Mystery Plays; Re-edited in George England, Alfred W. Pollard, editors, The Towneley Plays (Early English Text Society Extra Series; LXXI), London: […] Oxford University Press, 1897, →OCLC, page 5, lines 120–121:

He is so fair, without any limit; his appearance shows well when he sits on the dais.

That the ſonnes of God ſaw the daughters of men, that they were faire, and they took them wiues, of all which they choſe.

1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Genesis 6:2, column 1:

"It was a purely scientific research party sent out by my father's father, the Jeddak of Helium, to rechart the air currents, and to take atmospheric density tests," replied the fair prisoner, in a low, well-modulated voice.

1912 February–July, Edgar Rice Burroughs, “Under the Moons of Mars”, in The All-Story, New York, N.Y.: Frank A. Munsey Co., →OCLC; republished as “Champion and Chief”, in A Princess of Mars, Chicago, Ill.: A[lexander] C[aldwell] McClurg & Co., 1917 October, →OCLC, page 96:

And yet he was also, though many generations separated them, distant cousin to the shining eoten-main Geard, whom the god Frea Ing had seen from afar and wedded; and to Scatha, the fair daughter of the old thurse Theasa, who had claimed a husband from among the gods as weregild for her father's slaying: often, it was said, the ugliest eotens would sire the fairest maids.

2010, Stephan Grundy, Beowulf (Fiction), iUniverse, →ISBN, page 33:

(original sense, archaic or literary) Beautiful, of a pleasing appearance, with a pure and fresh quality.


pretty

en-adj

pretty (comparative prettier, superlative prettiest)

prettier (comparative)
prettiest (superlative)

desc

→ Japanese: プリティー (puritī), プリティ (puriti), プリチー (purichī)

From Middle English prety, preti, praty, prati, from Old English prættiġ (“tricky, crafty, sly, cunning, wily, astute”), from Proto-West Germanic *prattug, from Proto-Germanic *prattugaz (“boastful, sly, slick, deceitful, tricky, cunning”), corresponding to prat (“trick”) + -y. Doublet of pratty.
Cognate with Dutch prettig (“nice, pleasant”), Low German prettig (“funny”), Icelandic prettugur (“deceitful, tricky”). For the semantic development, compare canny, clever, cute.

cog

The face which emerged was not reassuring.[…]. He was not a mongol but there was a deficiency of a sort there, and it was not made more pretty by a latter-day hair cut which involved eccentrically long elf-locks and oiled black curls.

1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 17, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:

To escape a violent beating from sailors to whom he has sold a non-functioning car, Jerry takes his stepfamily for a holiday in a trailer park miles away, where, miraculously, young Nick meets a very pretty young woman called Sheeni, played by Portia Doubleday.

2010 February 4, Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian:

Pleasant to the sight or other senses; attractive, especially of women or children.

i bukur

especially of women and children: pleasant, attractive

'Petit Posy' brassicas […] are a cross between kale and brussels sprouts, and are really very pretty with a mild, sweet taste.

2010 February 13, Lia Leendertz, The Guardian:

Of objects or things: nice-looking, appealing.

Damned by the Socialists as "traitors to the working class," its leaders were decried by Tories as "faceless peddlers of politics with a pretty little trinket for every taste."

1962 September 28, “New Life for the Liberals”, in Time:

(often derogatory) Fine-looking; only superficially attractive; initially appealing but having little substance; see petty.


pretty

'The boy sings pretty, don't he, Master Marner?'

1861, George Eliot, Silas Marner, London: Penguin Books, published 1967, page 139:


pretty

en-verb

pretty (third-person singular simple present pretties, present participle prettying, simple past and past participle prettied)

pretties (present singular third-person)
prettying (participle present)
prettied (participle past)
prettied (past)

He sat on the hearth rug and began prettying the dog's coat.

2007, Eric Knight, Lassie Come-Home, →ISBN, page 29:


pie-faced

en-adj

pie-faced (comparative more pie-faced, superlative most pie-faced)

more pie-faced (comparative)
most pie-faced (superlative)

She is already up to feeling sorry for the pie-faced wife and children in the oak frames on his filing cabinet, the small cluster of people who have Jon Folan in every one of their days.

Jolene was a pie-faced, heavy girl and I always thought she looked the type to have gone and found trouble just to show you didn't have to be a cheerleader to be fast.

1998, Barbara Kingsolver, The Bean Trees: A Novel:

He glanced across her at the jawless, pie-faced woman soon to be her mother-in-law, whose owlish eyes were fixed askance upon their hands.

2001, Roger Ladd Memott, The Gypsy Lover:


attractive

attractive (comparative more attractive, superlative most attractive)

more attractive (comparative)
most attractive (superlative)

repulsive

antonym(s) of “having the power of charming”

repulsive

antonym(s) of “pleasing or appealing to the senses”

From Middle French attractif, from Late Latin attractivus, equivalent to attract + -ive.

He is an attractive fellow with a trim figure.

[…] or I keysmash my feelings away every time there is an attractive picture of them that surfaced on the internet and since every picture is an attractive picture, let's just say my keyboard knows the pain I have to go through.

2013 February, Olivia Solomon, “Idol Worship and the Life Ruiners of Ecosoc”, in Echoes, University of the Philippines, page 50:

Pleasing or appealing to the senses, especially of a potential romantic partner.


beauty

en-noun

beauty (countable and uncountable, plural beauties)

→ Cebuano: byuti

From Middle English bewty, bewte, beaute, bealte, from Anglo-Norman and Old French beauté (early Old French spelling biauté), from Vulgar Latin *bellitātem (“beauty”), from Latin bellus (“beautiful, fair”); see beau. In this sense, mostly displaced native Old English fæġernes, whence Modern English fairness.

A thing of beauty is a joy for ever: / Its loveliness increases; it will never / Pass into nothingness; but still will keep / A bower quiet for us, and a sleep / Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing.

1818, John Keats, “Book I”, in Endymion: A Poetic Romance, London: […] T[homas] Miller, […] for Taylor and Hessey, […], →OCLC, page 3, lines 1–5:

‘Say, hast thou seen enough!’ ‘I have looked on beauty, and I am blinded,’ I said hoarsely, lifting my hand to cover up my eyes.

1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:

Warwick's first glance had revealed the fact that the young woman was strikingly handsome, with a stately beauty seldom encountered.

1900, Charles W[addell] Chesnutt, chapter I, in The House Behind the Cedars, Boston, Mass.; New York, N.Y.: Houghton, Mifflin and Company […], →OCLC:

"The aviators didn't get him," Denham replied slowly. "What?" "It was Beauty. As always Beauty killed the Beast."

1932, Delos W. Lovelace, King Kong, published 1965, page 152:

1988, "… beauty and recollection, like danger, glamour, greed, hunger- everything but disappointment and desire- were concepts belonging to other people.” -Second Son, Robert Ferro

(uncountable) The quality of being (especially visually) attractive, pleasing, fine or good-looking; comeliness.


affectation

affectation (countable and uncountable, plural affectations)

First attested in 1548. From Latin affectātiōnem (possibly via French affectation), from affectō (“I feign”).

This poem is strongly tinctured with those pedantic affectations concerning the passion of love ...

1810, Dr. Samuel Johnson, “Life of Gower”, in The Works of the English Poets, Digitized edition, published 2009:

[T]hey were not the spoiled children of affectation and refinement, but a bold, vigorous, independent race of thinkers, with prodigious strength and energy, with none but natural grace, and heartfelt unobtrusive delicacy.

1820, William Hazlitt, “Lecture I. Introductory.”, in Lectures Chiefly on the Dramatic Literature of the Age of Elizabeth. […], London: Stodart and Steuart, […]; Edinburgh: Bell and Bradfute, →OCLC, page 2:

An attempt to assume or exhibit what is not natural or real; false display; artificial show.

преструване

an attempt to assume or exhibit what is not natural or real


adorn

en-verb

adorn (third-person singular simple present adorns, present participle adorning, simple past and past participle adorned)

adorns (present singular third-person)
adorning (participle present)
adorned (participle past)
adorned (past)

From Middle English adornen, adournen, from Latin adōrnāre; from ad + ōrnō (“furnish, embellish”). See adore, ornate. Replaced earlier Middle English aournen (“to adorn”) borrowed from Old French aorner, from the same Latin source.

a man adorned with noble statuary and columns

a character adorned with every Christian grace

A gallery of paintings was adorned with the works of some of the great masters.

as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels

1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Isaiah 61:10:

At church, with meek and unaffected grace, / His looks adorned the venerable place; / Truth from his lips prevailed with double ſway, / And fools, who came to ſcoff, remained to pray.

1770, [Oliver] Goldsmith, The Deserted Village, a Poem, London: […] W[illiam] Griffin, […], →OCLC, page 10:

Durable, water-resistant and easy to clean, tiles have adorned Persian mosques, Moorish palaces and the parlors of Dutch burgers.

1980, Robert M. Jones, editor, Walls and Ceilings, Time-Life Books, →ISBN, page 38:

To make more beautiful and attractive; to decorate.

زَيَّنَ

to make more beautiful and attractive; to decorate


adorn

And to realities yield all her shows:
Made so adorn for thy delight the more

1667, John Milton, “(please specify the page number)”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:


alike

en-adj

alike (comparative more alike, superlative most alike)

more alike (comparative)
most alike (superlative)

The adjective comes from a conflation of several different terms:
* Middle English alich, alych, alyke, a Late Middle English development from earlier Middle English anlich, anlyke, from Old English onlīċ, anlīċ. Compare German ähnlich.
* The borrowed Old Norse cognate of the same word, álíkr, ultimately yielding similar Late Middle English forms.
* Middle English ylich, ylych, ilich, ylik, ylike, ȝelic, from Old English ġelīċ (“like; alike; similar; equal”), from Proto-West Germanic *galīk, from Proto-Germanic *galīkaz (“alike, similar”). Cognate with Scots elyke, alyke (“like, alike”), Saterland Frisian gliek (“like, alike”), West Frisian lyk, gelyk (“like, alike”), Dutch gelijk (“like, alike”), German Low German liek, gliek (“like, alike”), German gleich (“equal, like”), Danish lig (“alike”), Swedish lik (“like, similar”), Norwegian lik (“like, alike”), Icelandic líkur (“alike, like, similar”). Equivalent to a- (Etymology 3) + like. Compare also West Frisian allyk (“all the same, alike”).
Similarly, the adverb also comes from a conflation of several different terms:
* Middle English aliche, alyche, alyke, a Late Middle English development from earlier Middle English anliche, anlyke, from Old English onlīċe, anlīċe.
* Additionally Middle English oliche, olike, ultimately from the Old Norse cognate of the same word, álíka.
* Middle English yliche, ylyche, iliche, ylike, ȝelice, from Old English ġelīċe (“alike, similarly”).

cog

The twins were alike.

The wide prospect up stream was grey and lowering, the long still-distant waterfront of Dundee, and the Fife shore were alike colourless, and there was ample evidence of rough weather not far ahead.

1947 January and February, O. S. Nock, “"The Aberdonian" in Wartime”, in Railway Magazine, page 7:

Having resemblance or similitude; similar; without difference.


alike

We are all alike concerned in religion.

As the Knight himself seemed tacitly to disclaim alike interest and controul over the immediate favourite of his lady, young Roland was, by circumstances, exempted from the strict discipline to which, as the retainer of a Scottish man of rank, he would otherwise have been subjected, according to all the rigour of the age.

1820, [Walter Scott], chapter III, in The Abbot. […], volume I, Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne & Co.] for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […]; and for Archibald Constable and Company, and John Ballantyne, […], →OCLC, page 73:

Carried somehow, somewhither, for some reason, on these surging floods, were these travelers, of errand not wholly obvious to their fellows, yet of such sort as to call into query alike the nature of their errand and their own relations.

1910, Emerson Hough, chapter II, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:

In the same manner, form, or degree; in common; equally.

yhtä

tn the same manner, form, or degree; equally


ornament

en-verb

ornament (third-person singular simple present ornaments, present participle ornamenting, simple past and past participle ornamented)

ornaments (present singular third-person)
ornamenting (participle present)
ornamented (participle past)
ornamented (past)

/ˈɔɹnəˌmɛnt/

From Middle English ornament, from Old French ornement, from Latin ornamentum (“equipment, apparatus, furniture, trappings, adornment, embellishment”), from ornāre (“to equip, adorn”). The verb is derived from the noun.

der

We will ornament the windows with trim to make the room seem brighter.


appealingly

en-adv

appealingly (comparative more appealingly, superlative most appealingly)

more appealingly (comparative)
most appealingly (superlative)


appealing

en-adj

appealing (comparative more appealing, superlative most appealing)

more appealing (comparative)
most appealing (superlative)

Her housecoat had fallen open. She was wearing only panties and bra, which did nothing to make her scrawny, wrinkled body appealing.

1968, Carl Ruhen, The Key Club, Sydney: Scripts, page 12:

Some of the most beautiful and thus appealing physical theories, including quantum electrodynamics and quantum gravity, have been dogged for decades by infinities that erupt when theorists try to prod their calculations into new domains. Getting rid of these nagging infinities has probably occupied far more effort than was spent in originating the theories.

2012 January 14, Michael Riordan, “Tackling Infinity”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 1, archived from the original on 2013-04-30, page 86:

Those were all landmark moments to cherish. Just as appealing was the manner in which Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Milner cut swathes down either flank, albeit through flustered full-backs who had looked poorly positioned and horribly jittery from the start.

2012 September 7, Dominic Fifield, “England start World Cup campaign with five-goal romp against Moldova”, in The Guardian:


ugly

en-noun

ugly (countable and uncountable, plural uglies)

Inherited from Middle English ugly, uggely, uglike, borrowed from Old Norse uggligr (“fearful, dreadful, horrible in appearance”), from uggr (“fear, apprehension, dread”) (possibly related to agg (“strife, hate”)), equivalent to ug + -ly. Cognate with Scots ugly, uglie, Icelandic ugglegur. Meaning softened to "very unpleasant to look at" around the late 14th century, and sense of "morally offensive" attested from around 1300.

der

I want your ugly / I want your disease.


Adonis

The Phœnician Adonis was identical with Tammūz.

1866, Sabine Baring-Gould, Curious Myths of the Middle Ages, S. George:

1900, James Frazer, The Golden Bough, Chapter 42: Osiris and the Sun,
A strong reason for interpreting the death of Osiris as the decay of vegetation rather than as the sunset is to be found in the general, though not unanimous, voice of antiquity, which classed together the worship and myths of Osiris, Adonis, Attis, Dionysus, and Demeter, as religions of essentially the same type. The consensus of ancient opinion on this subject seems too great to be rejected as a mere fancy. So closely did the rites of Osiris resemble those of Adonis at Byblus that some of the people of Byblus themselves maintained that it was Osiris and not Adonis whose death was mourned by them.

1921, Jessie Weston, From Ritual to Romance, Chapter X: The Secret of the Grail (1) - The Mysteries,
As Sir J. G. Frazer has before now pointed out, there are parallel and over-lapping forms of this cult, the name of the god, and certain details of the ritual, may differ in different countries, but whether he hails from Babylon, Phrygia, or Phoenicia, whether he be called Tammuz, Attis, or Adonis, the main lines of the story are fixed, and invariable. Always he is young and beautiful, always the beloved of a great goddess; always he is the victim of a tragic and untimely death, a death which entails bitter loss and misfortune upon a mourning world, and which, for the salvation of that world, is followed by a resurrection.

(Greek mythology) A beautiful young man loved by Aphrodite.

(rare) A male given name from Ancient Greek

An unincorporated community in Polk County, Missouri, United States.

An unincorporated community in Tyler County, West Virginia, United States.


appearance

en-noun

appearance (countable and uncountable, plural appearances)

Borrowed from Middle French apparence, from Latin apparentia, from appareo. Morphologically appear + -ance. Displaced native Old English hīew (“the way something looks or seems”) and ætīewednes (“act of appearing or coming into view”).

явяване

The coming into court of either of the parties

There was a strange appearance in the sky.

A thing seen; a phenomenon; an apparition.

And now am come to ſee of whom ſuch noiſe / Hath walk'd about, and each limb to ſurvey, / If thy appearance anſwer loud report.

1671, John Milton, “Samson Agonistes, […].”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: […] J[ohn] M[acock] for John Starkey […], →OCLC, page 66, lines 99–101:

The most rapid and most seductive transition in all human nature is that which attends the palliation of a ravenous appetite.[…]Can those harmless but refined fellow-diners be the selfish cads whose gluttony and personal appearance so raised your contemptuous wrath on your arrival?

1921, Ben Travers, chapter 5, in A Cuckoo in the Nest, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, published 1925, →OCLC:

The way something looks; personal presence

Some people say I'm shallow because I care so much about my appearance.

KAWS’s first sculptures were limited edition toys for the Japanese brand Bounty Hunter, and the stylised figures distributed around YSP in a variety of postures – shielding their eyes from the sun, seated in apparent contemplation or leading a child-sized version of themselves over the sward – have the appearance of gigantic toys, with their instant legibility and machine-honed surfaces.

2016 February 4, Mark Hudson, “KAWS, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, review: 'hypnotically compelling'”, in The Telegraph:

And on the day that the tabernacle was reared up the cloud covered the tabernacle, namely, the tent of the testimony: and at even there was upon the tabernacle as it were the appearance of fire, until the morning.

1769, The King James Bible, Numbers ix. 15:

Judge not according to the appearance.

1769, The King James Bible, John vii. 24:

Apparent likeness; the way which something or someone appears to others.

Catholicism teaches that the Eucharist, while remaining under the physical appearance of bread and wine, becomes really and truly the body and the blood of Christ.

(philosophy, theology) That which is not substance, essence, hypostasis; the outward reality as opposed to the underlying reality


appeal

en-verb

appeal (third-person singular simple present appeals, present participle appealing, simple past and past participle appealed)

appeals (present singular third-person)
appealing (participle present)
appealed (participle past)
appealed (past)

From Middle English apelen, appelen (“to accuse; to make a formal charge before a court, etc., impeach; to challenge to trial by combat; to apply to a higher court or authority for review of a decision; to call upon for a decision, favour, help, etc.; to call by a name”) [and other forms], from Old French apeler (“to call; to call out”); see further at etymology 1.

nb...

apeal, apeale, apeele, apele, appel, appele

اِسْتَأْنَفَ

(intransitive) to apply to a superior court or judge for a decision or order by an inferior court or judge to be reviewed and overturned

apelovat

to call upon a person or an authority to corroborate a statement, to decide a controverted question, or to vindicate one’s rights — see also entreat, invoke

appeal from Philip drunk to Philip sober

That idea appeals to me.

The humor of my proposition appealed more strongly to Miss Trevor than I had looked for, and from that time forward she became her old self again; for, even after she had conquered her love for the Celebrity, the mortification of having been jilted by him remained.

1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter VIII, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC, page 110:

(intransitive, figuratively) To be attractive.


grace

en-noun

grace (countable and uncountable, plural graces)

From Middle English grace, from Old French grace (modern French grâce), from Latin grātia (“kindness, favour, esteem”), from grātus (“pleasing”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʷerH- (“to praise, welcome”); compare grateful.
The word displaced the native Middle English held, hield (“grace”) (from Old English held, hyld (“grace”)), Middle English este (“grace, favour, pleasure”) (from Old English ēst (“grace, kindness, favour”)), Middle English athmede(n) (“grace”) (from Old English ēadmēdu (“grace”)), Middle English are, ore (“grace, mercy, honour”) (from Old English ār (“honour, grace, kindness, mercy”)).

cog

The dancer moved with grace and strength.

en:elegant movement, balance, poise, dexterousness

(uncountable) Elegant movement; elegance of movement; balance or poise.

When she sang in the kirk, folk have told me that they had a foretaste of the musick of the New Jerusalem, and when she came in by the village of Caulds old men stottered to their doors to look at her. Moreover, from her earliest days the bairn had some glimmerings of grace.

1902, John Buchan, The Outgoing of the Tide:

(uncountable, theology) Free and undeserved favour, especially of God; unmerited divine assistance given to humans for their regeneration or sanctification, or for resisting sin.

ողորմածություն

free and undeserved favour, especially of God

An act or decree of the governing body of an English university.


grace

en-verb

grace (third-person singular simple present graces, present participle gracing, simple past and past participle graced)

graces (present singular third-person)
gracing (participle present)
graced (participle past)
graced (past)

He graced the room with his presence.

He graced the room by simply being there.

His portrait graced a landing on the stairway.

Great Jove and Phoebus graced his noble line.

c. 1699 – 1703, Alexander Pope, “The First Book of Statius His Thebais”, in The Works of Mr. Alexander Pope, volume I, London: […] W[illiam] Bowyer, for Bernard Lintot, […], published 1717, →OCLC:

We are graced with wreaths of victory.

1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies. […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene iii]:

(transitive) To adorn; to decorate; to embellish and dignify.

украсявам

to adorn; to decorate; to embellish and dignify


sexy

en-adj

sexy (comparative sexier, superlative sexiest)

sexier (comparative)
sexiest (superlative)

→ Bulgarian: се́кси (séksi)

→ Catalan: sexi

→ Cebuano: seksi

→ Danish: sexy

→ Dutch: sexy

→ French: sexy

→ Galician: sexy

→ German: sexy

→ Greek: σέξι (séxi)

→ Hebrew: סקסי (seksi)

→ Icelandic: sexí

→ Indonesian: seksi, sèksi

→ Italian: sexy

→ Japanese: セクシー (sekushī)

→ Korean: 섹시 (seksi)

→ Maltese: seksi

→ Mongolian: секси (seksi)

→ Norwegian Bokmål: sexy

→ Norwegian Nynorsk: sexy

→ Persian: سکسی (seksi)

→ Portuguese: sexy

→ Romanian: sexy

→ Russian: се́кси (séksi)

→ Scottish Gaelic: seagsaidh

→ Serbo-Croatian: sȅksī, се̏ксӣ

→ Spanish: sexi, sexy

→ Tagalog: seksi

→ Thai: เซ็กซี่ (sék-sîi)

→ Turkish: seksi

Usually or always for masculine referent:

Usually or always for feminine referent:

The participants in the swimsuit competition are all very sexy.

She has a sexy voice!

If you want my body and you think I'm sexy / Come on sugar let me know

1978, “Da Ya Think I’m Sexy?”, in Blondes Have More Fun, performed by Rod Stewart:


toothsome

toothsome (comparative more toothsome, superlative most toothsome)

more toothsome (comparative)
most toothsome (superlative)

"It's a lot nicer than going round by the road; that is so dusty and hot," said Diana practically, peeping into her dinner basket and mentally calculating if the three juicy, toothsome, raspberry tarts reposing there were divided among ten girls, how many bites each girl would have.

1908 June, L[ucy] M[aud] Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables, Boston, Mass.: L[ouis] C[oues] Page & Company, published August 1909 (11th printing), →OCLC:

‘I had the happy notion of adding an egg,’ Williams shouted back. ‘It poaches in the soup. Not unlike an Italian stracciatella. Singularly toothsome.[…]’

1991 September, Stephen Fry, chapter 2, in The Liar, London: Heinemann, →ISBN, →OCLC, section I, page 41:

In 1919 he had been waiting at a bus stop, en route to his initiation as a Freemason: a toothsome blonde had crossed his path, and he had stalked off after her instead.

1989, David John Cawdell Irving, Göring: a biography:

(by extension of sense 1, and by analogy to slang tasty) Sexually attractive.


stunna

The stress over what went down with Gatz caused her to drop twenty pounds but the weight loss was in all the right places. She was a stunna before but now she's a downright bad chick.

2006, Kali James, Can U Get Away?, page 83:

(colloquial, chiefly British tabloid press) Alternative form of stunner (“a woman of stunning beauty”)


ugly duckling

Calque of Danish grim ælling. From the fairy tale of a duckling, considered ugly, that matures into a magnificent swan.

The ugly duckling has become a very fine swan, and Rachel Sprigg and her team have worked hard to ensure that Derby is a worthy winner of that coveted National Rail Award. They can be proud of their achievements.

2019 December 4, Andy Coward, “Derby's crowning achievement”, in Rail, page 57:

(idiomatic) A young person who is ugly, but who is expected to become beautiful or handsome as they mature.

አስቀያሚ ሲንድሬላ

one who is ugly, but who is expected to become beautiful or handsome as they mature


pert

pert (comparative perter, superlative pertest)

perter (comparative)
pertest (superlative)

From Middle English pert, perte, aphetic form of apert.


like

en-verb

like (third-person singular simple present likes, present participle liking, simple past and past participle liked)

likes (present singular third-person)
liking (participle present)
liked (participle past)
liked (past)

Jersey Dutch: lāike

Verb from Middle English liken, from Old English līcian (“to like, to please”), from Proto-West Germanic *līkēn, from Proto-Germanic *līkāną, from Proto-Indo-European *leyg- (“image; likeness; similarity”).
Cognate with Saterland Frisian liekje (“to be similar, resemble”), Dutch lijken (“to seem”), German Low German lieken (“to be like; resemble”), German gleichen (“to resemble”), Swedish lika (“to like; put up with; align with”), Norwegian like (“to like”), Icelandic líka (“to like”).
Noun from Middle English like (“pleasure, will, like”), from the verb Middle English liken (“to like”).

inh

падаба́цца (padabácca) (intransitive, the person who likes is the object of the verb in the dative case)

plaĉi al (intransitive, the person who likes is marked with the preposition al)

dáma (with subject in dative case and object in accusative case)

hóva (with subject in dative case and object in accusative case)

líka (with subject in dative case and object in accusative case)

falla (with subject in dative case and object in accusative case)

plaire (à)

gefallen (intransitive, the person who likes is the object of the verb in the dative case)

מָצָא חֵן בְּעֵינֵי (matzá ẖen b'enéy, literally “found grace in the eyes of”) (with subject and object reversed)

tetszik (with the person or thing liked in the dative)

podobać się impf (intransitive, the person who likes is the object of the verb in the dative case)

нра́виться impf (nrávitʹsja) (intransitive, the person who likes is the object of the verb in the dative case) (e.g. мне нра́вится (mne nrávitsja) + nominative case - I like + object)

сви́ђати се impf (intransitive, the person who likes is the object of the verb in the dative case)

svíđati se impf (intransitive, the person who likes is the object of the verb in the dative case)

zespódobaś se pf (intransitive, the person who likes is the object of the verb in the dative case)

all above + indirect object: ལ་དོན (la don) (oblique/dative-locative case) (ལ/-ར (la / -ra))

подо́батися (podóbatysja) (intransitive, the person who likes is the object of the verb in the dative case)

געפֿעלן (gefeln) (intransitive, the person who likes is the object of the verb in the dative case)

You like well, and bear your years very well.

c. 1598–1600 (date written), William Shakespeare, “As You Like It”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iv]:

(obsolete) To have an appearance or expression; to look; to seem to be (in a specified condition).


goodly

en-adj

goodly (comparative goodlier, superlative goodliest)

goodlier (comparative)
goodliest (superlative)

From Middle English goodly, goodlich, gōdlich, from Old English gōdlīċ (“good, goodly”), from Proto-West Germanic *gōdalīk, from Proto-Germanic *gōdalīkaz (“good, goodly”); equivalent to good + -ly. Cognate with Dutch goedelijk, goelijk (“harmless, benign”), German gütlich (“friendly”), Icelandic góðlegur (“benign”).

inh

Her goodly thighs, whoſe glory did appear, / Like a triumphal Arch,[…]

1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book VI, Canto IX”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

The diuell can cite Scripture for his purpoſe, / An euill ſoule producing holy witneſſe, / Is like a villaine with a ſmiling cheeke, / A goodly apple rotten at the heart. / O what a goodly outſide falſehood hath.

c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii], page 166:

O Sin, thou knowest that all thy shame in her
Was made a goodly thing.

1866, Algernon Charles Swinburne, “A Ballad of Death”, in Poems and Ballads, lines 26–27:

Then the prince left her and betook himself to the palace of the King his father, who rejoiced in his return and met him and welcomed him; and the Prince said to him, "Know that I have left her without the city in such a garden and come to tell thee, that thou mayst make ready the procession of estate and go forth to meet her and show her the royal dignity and troops and guards." Answered the King, "With joy and gladness"; and straightway bade decorate the town with the goodliest adornment.

1885, Richard F. Burton, The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night:

(dated) Good; pleasing in appearance; attractive; comely; graceful; pleasant; desirable.


lank

en-adj

lank (comparative lanker, superlative lankest)

lanker (comparative)
lankest (superlative)

From Middle English lank, from Old English hlanc, from Proto-West Germanic *hlank, from Proto-Germanic *hlankaz (“lank, thin”), from Proto-Indo-European *kleng- (“to bend, turn, wind, twist”); compare German lenken (“to turn”), Gelenk (“joint”), Old High German hlanca (“hip, side, flank”), and English link (of a chain).

cog

Run barefoot up and down, threat’ning the flames
With bisson rheum; a clout upon that head
Where late the diadem stood, and for a robe,
About her lank and all o’erteemed loins,
A blanket, in the alarm of fear caught up;

c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene ii]:

1700, Isaac Barrow, Sermon XXII “Of Industry in our particular Calling, as Scholars,” in The Works of the Learned Isaac Barrow, D.D., London: John Tillotson, 2nd edition, Volume III, p. 226,
[…] who would not chuse […] to have rather a lank purse than an empty brain […] ?

1724-5, Jonathan Swift, “A Receipt. To Restore Stella’s Youth” in The Works of Jonathan Swift, London: Henry Washbourne, 1841, Volume 1, p. 687,
Meagre and lank with fasting grown,
And nothing left but skin and bone;

The cognomen of Crane was not inapplicable to his person. He was tall, but exceedingly lank, with narrow shoulders, long arms and legs, hands that dangled a mile out of his sleeves, feet that might have served for shovels, and his whole frame most loosely hung together.

1820 March 5, Geoffrey Crayon [pseudonym; Washington Irving], “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”, in The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent., number VI, New York, N.Y.: […] C[ornelius] S. Van Winkle, […], →OCLC:

[…] while I stood in the dark, a hand touched mine, lank fingers came feeling over my face, and I was sensible of a peculiar unpleasant odour.

1895 May 7, H[erbert] G[eorge] Wells, chapter 6, in The Time Machine: An Invention, New York, N.Y.: Henry Holt and Company, →OCLC:

Blacks in the fields, lank and stooped, their fingers spiderlike among the bolls of cotton.

1985, Cormac McCarthy, chapter 1, in Blood Meridian […] , →OCLC:

Slender or thin; not well filled out; not plump; shrunken; lean.


swish

en-adj

swish (comparative swisher or more swish, superlative swishest or most swish)

swisher (comparative)
more swish (comparative)
swishest (superlative)
most swish (superlative)

When the boys go swish, they always score

2004, “Ladyflash”, in Thunder, Lightning, Strike, performed by The Go! Team:

The Saints, who started the day third in the table, went marching on thanks to their own swish play and some staggering defending by the visitors.

2014 October 18, Paul Doyle, “Southampton hammer eight past hapless Sunderland in barmy encounter”, in The Guardian:


wench

Sranan Tongo: wenke

The noun is derived from Middle English wench, wenche (“female baby; girl (especially unmarried); maiden, young woman; bondwoman; serving maid; beloved, sweetheart; concubine, mistress; harlot, prostitute”) [and other forms], a shortened form of Middle English wenchel (“girl; maiden; child”), from Old English wenċel, winċel (“child; servant; slave”), from Proto-Germanic *wankilą, from Proto-Germanic *wankijaną (“to sway; waver”). The English word is cognate with Old High German wenken (“to waver; to give way, yield”), wankōn (“to totter”).
The verb is derived from the noun.

cog

Jane played the role of a wench in an Elizabethan comedy.

I, like a tẽder harted vvench, ſkriked out for feare of the divell.

a. 1587, Philippe Sidnei [i.e., Philip Sidney], “[The Second Booke] Chapter 14”, in [Fulke Greville; Matthew Gwinne; John Florio], editors, The Countesse of Pembrokes Arcadia [The New Arcadia], London: […] [John Windet] for William Ponsonbie, published 1590, →OCLC, folio 164, recto:

hee weepes like a wench that had ſhed her / milke, he hath confeſt himſelfe to Morgan, whom hee ſuppoſes to be a Friar, [...]

c. 1604–1605 (date written), William Shakespeare, “All’s Well, that Ends Well”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene iii], page 247, column 2:

Now Jonathan and Ahimaaz ſtayed by En-rogel: (for they might not be ſeene to come into the citie) and a wench went and told them: and they went, and tolde king Dauid.

1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 2 Samuel 17:17, column 1:

Beside, this I affirm—afford / Impression of it in thy soul—I will not use my sword / On thee or any for a wench, unjustly though thou tak'st / The thing thou gav'st; […]

[1611?], Homer, “Book I”, in Geo[rge] Chapman, transl., The Iliads of Homer Prince of Poets. […], London: […] Nathaniell Butter, →OCLC; republished as The Iliads of Homer, Prince of Poets, […], new edition, volume I, London: Charles Knight and Co., […], 1843, →OCLC, page 35:

He [a chief minister] is uſually governed by a decayed Wench, or favourite Footman, who are the Tunnels through which all Graces are conveyed, and may properly be called, in the laſt Reſort, the Governors of the Kingdom.

1726 October 28, [Jonathan Swift], “A Continuation of the State of England; so Well Governed by a Queen as to Need no First Minister. […]”, in Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. […] [Gulliver’s Travels], volume II, London: […] Benj[amin] Motte, […], →OCLC, part IV (A Voyage to the Houyhnhnms), page 248:

He was received by the daughter of the house, a pretty, buxom, blue-eyed little wench, who seemed to regard the tall, bronzed, black-eyed stranger with much and evident favour.

1887, William Black, “New Quarters”, in Sabina Zembra […], volume III, London, New York, N.Y.: Macmillan and Co., →OCLC, page 22:

We got wenches on the benches, and bitties with titties / Housing all girlies from city to city

1986 November 15, Beastie Boys, Rick Rubin (lyrics and music), “Rhymin & Stealin”, in Licensed to Ill, performed by the Beastie Boys:

"Can't we use a real girl? Can't Maria just play along?" / "She's at the movies with Chanel." / "Lucky wench. Why can't Ryan just be with a guy? Aren't you offended?" / "Just doing what Rain said to do. And actually, a little, yeah."

2012 September 25, Jocelyn Samara D., Rain (webcomic), Comic 262 - Too Funny:

(archaic, now dialectal or humorous, possibly offensive) A girl or young woman, especially a buxom or lively one.

The woman is a brazen, hard-looking wench, a female pedlar, who hawks needles, thread, cheap looking-glasses, pious pictures, almanacs, hair-pins, ballads, of the most humble pattern, through the country.

1871, W[illiam] Barry, “The Barony of Threeneheila within Drum”, in Moorland and Stream. With Notes and Prose Idyls on Shooting and Trout Fishing, London: Tinsley Brothers, […], →OCLC, page 25:

(specifically) A girl or young woman of a lower class.

holka

(archaic) girl or young woman of a lower class

When they had kyndled a fyre in the myddes of the palys / and were sett doune to gedder / Peter alsoo sate doune amonge them. And won off the wenches / as he sate / beholde him by the light and sett goode eyesight on him / and sayde: This same was also with hym. Then he denyed hym sayinge: Woman I knowe hym nott.

1526, [William Tyndale, transl.], The Newe Testamẽt […] (Tyndale Bible), [Worms, Germany: Peter Schöffer], →OCLC, The Gospell off S. Luke xxij:[55–57], folios cxiiii, recto – cxiiii, verso:

"I fear there is a chase; I think I hear three or four galloping together; I am sure I hear more horses than one." / "Pooh, pooh, it is the wench of the house that is clattering to the well in her pattens; […]."

1819, Jedediah Cleishbotham [pseudonym; Walter Scott], chapter V, in Tales of My Landlord, Third Series. […], volume I (The Bride of Lammermoor), Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […]; Hurst, Robinson, and Co. […], →OCLC, page 150:

[W]orking for Colonel Boone a the time—and two more men whose names I disremember now, and a nigger wench we had for a cook. […] So I got onto one of the ponies and led the others down to the spring near camp to water them while the wench was a getting breakfast, and some o' the rest o' the outfit was a fixin the saddles and greasing the wagon.

1881, Henry Inman, “A Legend of Pawnee Rock; or How the Life of an Old Trapper was Saved by a Bird”, in Stories of the Old Santa Fe Trail, Kansas City, Mo.: Ramsey, Millett & Hudson, pages 89 and 91:

(archaic) A woman servant; a maidservant.

2 [Friar Bernardine]. Thou haſt committed— / Bar[abas]. Fornication? but that was in another Country; And beſides, the Wench is dead.

c. 1589–1590 (date written), Christopher Marlo[we], edited by Tho[mas] Heywood, The Famous Tragedy of the Rich Iew of Malta. […], London: […] I[ohn] B[eale] for Nicholas Vavasour, […], published 1633, →OCLC, Act IV, signature G2, verso:

Whilſt Men have theſe Ambitious Fancies, / And wanton Wenches read Romances, / Our Sex will—What? out with it: Lye: / And Theirs in equal Strains reply.

1702, Mat[thew] Prior, “To a Young Gentleman in Love. A Tale.”, in Poems on Several Occasions, 2nd edition, London: Printed for Jacob Tonson, […], published 1709, →OCLC, page 103:

It must not thought a digression from my intended speculation, to talk of bawds in a discourse upon wenches; for a woman of the town is not thoroughly and properly such, without having gone through the education of one of these houses.

1712 January 15 (Gregorian calendar), [Joseph Addison; Richard Steele et al.], “FRIDAY, January 4, 1711–1712”, in The Spectator, number 266; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New Edition, […], volume III, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton & Company, 1853, →OCLC, page 329:

(archaic) A promiscuous woman; a mistress (“other woman in an extramarital relationship”).

Nancy Basset, 28, likely wench, mulatto / Proved to be free. / Certified free as per General Birch Certificate. / / Patience Jackson, 23, very likely wench, mulatto / Says she was born free Rhode Island. / Certified free as per General Birch Certificate.

1776–1787, Carmelita Robertson, Elizabeth E. D. Eve, Black Loyalists of Nova Scotia: Tracing the History of Tracadie Loyalists, 1776–87 (Curatorial Report; no. 91), Halifax, N.S.: History Section, Nova Scotia Museum, Department of Tourism & Culture, published 2000, →ISBN:

Now, I bought a gal once, when I was in the trade,—a tight, likely wench she was, too, and quite considerable smart— [...]

1851 June – 1852 April, Harriet Beecher Stowe, “[Eliza’s Escape]”, in Uncle Tom’s Cabin; or, Life among the Lowly, volume I, Boston, Mass.: John P[unchard] Jewett & Company; Cleveland, Oh.: Jewett, Proctor & Worthington, published 20 March 1852, →OCLC, page 100:

A colored girl […] was fined ten dollars in the Freedman's Court yesterday, for being drunk and disorderly. Not having the money in her possession, she requested that a guard be sent with her to her residence to procure it. The Provost allowed a guard to wait on the wench, who, as soon as she found herself inside of her own door, locked it, and left the poor guard outside without the money. He returned to court without either the wench or fine.

1866 March 2, “Sharp Wench”, in The Appeal, St. Paul, Minneapolis, Minn.: Parker, Burgett & Hardy, →OCLC, page 3; quoted in Hannah Rosen, “Notes”, in Terror in the Heart of Freedom: Citizenship, Sexual Violence, and the Meaning of Race in the Postemancipation South (Gender and American Culture), Chapel Hill, N.C.: University of North Carolina Press, 2009, →ISBN, footnote 186, page 282:

So complete was this illusion, claims [Eric] Lott, that many audience members, including Mark Twain's mother, believed they were seeing authentic, biologically black performers on New York stages. Of course, wench characters seem to especially test the bounds of authentic performance. Played by men, wenches were nonetheless read by audiences as beautiful women: [...] [E]xtant photographs and engravings of wench performers do not always represent them as blacked up, […] In antebellum minstrel shows, wench songs were most often sung about mulatto women rather than by them.

2014, Kirsten Pullen, “Light Egyptian: Lena Horne and the Representation of Black Femininity”, in Like a Natural Woman: Spectacular Female Performance in Classical Hollywood, New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, →ISBN, pages 106–107:

(US, archaic or historical) A black woman (of any age), especially if in a condition of servitude.


cadaverous

en-adj

cadaverous (comparative more cadaverous, superlative most cadaverous)

more cadaverous (comparative)
most cadaverous (superlative)

From Latin cadāverōsus; compare Middle English cadaverous (“gangrenous, mortified”).

cog

The speakers were three men, rather beyond middle life. One was pale and cadaverous, as if every feature gave testimony to the length of his vigils and the rigour of his fasts, while straight black hair hanging down on each side his face added to his wild and neglected appearance.

1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XVII, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume II, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 196:

It may have been the sight of that cadaverous ambition and self-complacent meanness, which showed itself in Paley’s yellow face, and twinkled in his narrow eyes, or it may have been a natural appetite for pleasure and joviality, of which it must be confessed Mr. Pen was exceedingly fond, which deterred that luckless youth from pursuing his designs upon the Bench or the Woolsack with the ardour, or rather steadiness, which is requisite in gentlemen who would climb to those seats of honour.

1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 30, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849–1850, →OCLC:

Some approached pure blanching; some had a bluish pallor; some worn by the older characters (which had possibly lain by folded for many a year) inclined to a cadaverous tint, and to a Georgian style.

1891, Thomas Hardy, Tess of the d’Urbervilles: A Pure Woman Faithfully Presented […], volume I, London: James R[ipley] Osgood, McIlvaine and Co., […], →OCLC, phase the first (The Maiden), page 17:

1917 rev. 1925 Ezra Pound, "Canto I"
Dark blood flowed in the fosse,
Souls out of Erebus, cadaverous dead ...

By some paradoxical evolution rancour and intolerance have been established in the vanguard of primitive Christianity. Mrs. Spoker, in common with many of the stricter disciples of righteousness, was as inclement in demeanour as she was cadaverous in aspect.

1921, Ben Travers, chapter 4, in A Cuckoo in the Nest, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, published 1925, →OCLC:

Corpselike; hinting of death; imitating a cadaver.


voluptuous

en-adj

voluptuous (comparative more voluptuous, superlative most voluptuous)

more voluptuous (comparative)
most voluptuous (superlative)

From Middle French voluptueux, from Latin voluptuōsus (“delightful”), from voluptās (“pleasure, delight”), from volup (“with pleasure”).

The low neckline of her bodice emphasised her plump, voluptuous figure.

She was very dark skinned and has a voluptuous figure that she showed off with her stylish purple dress.

2018, Nnedi Okorafor, Who Fears Death, HarperVoyager, page 35:

(of a woman) Curvaceous and sexually attractive.


pulchritude

en-noun

pulchritude (usually uncountable, plural pulchritudes)

[ˈpʰʌɫkɹəˌtjuːd]

[ˈpʰʌɫkɹəˌtuːd]

From Middle English pulcritude, from Latin pulchritūdō, from pulcher (“beautiful”).

1978, Charles D. Benson and William Barnaby Faherty, Moonport: A History of Apollo Launch Facilities and Operations, NASA Special Publication 4204, 1978, ch. 4 https://web.archive.org/web/20061020074600/http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/SP-4204/ch4-8.html
One participant recalls arriving at his Cocoa Beach motel on a Saturday evening with the Miss Universe contest on TV. To his wife's amazement, his interest in feminine pulchritude gave way to fatigue, and he was asleep before the final selection.

Do you know why a woman of such pulchritude is married to me? 'Cause I make a comfortable living.


svelte

en-adj

svelte (comparative svelter, superlative sveltest)

svelter (comparative)
sveltest (superlative)

From French svelte, from Italian svelto (“stretched out”), past participle of svellere (“to pluck out, root out”), from Vulgar Latin *exvellere, from ex + vellere (“to pluck, stretch”).

Peering down from the cockpit at grazing elephant, you have the feeling that what you are beholding is wonderful, but not authentic. It is not only incongruous in the sense that animals simply are not as big as trees, but also in the sense that the twentieth century, tidy and svelte with stainless steel as it is, would not possibly permit such prehistoric monsters to wander in its garden.

1942, Beryl Markham, West with the Night:

At 61, Bryant looks good – smart and svelte in an electric blue suit, youthful, a full head of hair except for a white scar at the back that looks like a side door into his brain.

2023 August 5, Simon Hattenstone, “Labour MP Chris Bryant on cleaning up parliament, and why he’s not afraid to pick a fight: ‘I’ve got in more scrapes than most people’”, in The Guardian:


elegance

en-noun

elegance (usually uncountable, plural elegances)

From Middle French élégance, from Latin ēlegantia (“exquisiteness; refinement, elegance”).

der

The bride was elegance personified.

Grace, refinement, and beauty in movement, appearance, or manners.

bilqá

grace, refinement, and beauty in movement, appearance, or manners


fugly

en-adj

fugly (comparative fuglier, superlative fugliest)

fuglier (comparative)
fugliest (superlative)

"Fugly?" "Like extra-double ugly with cheese. It's when ugly goes off the scale. She looked like an angry handbag." Billie squawked in delight.

Man, but she's one fugly creature, horror-show fugly, I'm sorry.

1997, Enrico Brizzi, translated by Stash Luczkiw, Jack Frusciante Has Left the Band: A Love Story- with Rock 'n' Roll:

This girl is the nastiest skank bitch I've ever met. Do not trust her. She is a fugly slut.

2004, Mark Waters, Mean Girls, spoken by Regina George (Rachel McAdams), Broadway Video; distributed by Paramount Pictures:


dapper

dapper (comparative dapperer, superlative dapperest)

dapperer (comparative)
dapperest (superlative)

From Middle English daper (“pretty, neat”), from Middle Dutch dapper (“stalwart, nimble”), Old Dutch *dapar, from Proto-Germanic *dapraz (“stout; solid; heavy; bold”) (compare German tapfer "bold", Norwegian daper "saddened, dreary"), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰeb- ‘thick, heavy’ (compare Tocharian A tpär ‘high’, Latvian dàbls ‘strong’, Serbo-Croatian дебео (dèbeo) ‘fat’).

der

Going down the street, you would meet a typical commercial traveller, dapper and alert.

1917, P. G. Wodehouse, The Man With Two Left Feet:

Stylishly dressed, neatly dressed, spiffy.


prank

en-verb

prank (third-person singular simple present pranks, present participle pranking, simple past pranked, past participle pranked or (archaic) prankt)

pranks (present singular third-person)
pranking (participle present)
pranked (past)
pranked (participle past)
prankt (archaic participle past)

→ Welsh: prancio

Origin uncertain. Perhaps from Middle English pranken (“to adorn, arrange one's attire”), probably from Middle Dutch pronken, proncken (“to flaunt, make a show, arrange one's attire”), related to German prangen (“to make a show, be resplendent”), Dutch prangen (“to squeeze, press”), Danish pragt (“pomp, splendor”), all from Proto-Germanic *pranganą, *prangijaną, *prag- (“to press, squeeze, thring”), from Proto-Indo-European *brAngh- (“to press, squeeze”). Or, perhaps ultimately related to Proto-Germanic *brahtaz, similar to Dutch pracht (“splendor”), Swedish prakt (“glory, pomp”) (loaned from Low German).
Cognate with Middle Low German prunken (“to flaunt”), German prunken (“to flaunt”), Danish prunke (“to make a show, prank”). Sense of "mischievous act" from earlier verbal sense of "to be crafty or subtle, set in order, adjust". See also prink, prance, prong.

der

In sumptuous tire she ioyd her selfe to prancke

1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto II”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 36:

1748, James Thomson, The Castle of Indolence, B:II
And there a Seaſon atween June and May,
Half prankt with Spring, with Summer half imbrown'd,
A liſtleſs Climate made, where, Sooth to ſay,
No living Wight could work, ne cared even for Play.

Flora, wanton-eyed
For birth, and with all flowrets prankt and pied:

1880, Dante Gabriel Rosetti, For Spring, by Sandro Botticelli, lines 2–3:

(transitive, archaic) To adorn in a showy manner; to dress or equip ostentatiously.


elegant

en-adj

elegant (comparative more elegant, superlative most elegant)

more elegant (comparative)
most elegant (superlative)

From Late Middle English elegaunt, from Middle French elegant, ultimately from Latin ēlegāns.

You could just use ordinary shop-bought kecap manis to marinade the meat, but making your own is easy, has a far more elegant fragrance and is, above all, such a great brag! Flavouring kecap manis is an intensely personal thing, so try this version now and next time cook the sauce down with crushed, split lemongrass and a shredded lime leaf.

2015 October 27, Matt Preston, The Simple Secrets to Cooking Everything Better, Plum, →ISBN, page 192:

Characterised by or exhibiting elegance.


complexion

From Middle English complexion (“temperament”), from Old French complexion (French complexion), from Medieval Latin complexiō (“complexion, constitution”), from complector, past participle complexus (“to entwine, encompass”).

der

a rugged complexion

a sunburnt complexion

Prince of Morocco: Mislike me not for my complexion, / The shadow’d livery of the burnish’d sun, / To whom I am a neighbour, and near bred. […]

c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]:

"I shall do nothing for the next week but study my costume and complexion," said she. "Ethel and myself will consider our conquests as proper compliments to your kindness."

1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “Asking for an Invitation”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 28:

The conquest of the earth, which mostly means the taking it away from those who have a different complexion or slightly flatter noses than ourselves, is not a pretty thing when you look into it too much.

1899 February, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number M, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […], →OCLC, part I, page 193:

“Yes, Mr. Holmes, I teach music.”
“In the country, I presume, from your complexion.”
“Yes, sir, near Farnham, on the borders of Surrey.”

1903 December 26, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “The Adventure of the Solitary Cyclist”, in The Return of Sherlock Holmes, New York, N.Y.: McClure, Phillips & Co., published February 1905, →OCLC:

This new-comer was a man who in any company would have seemed striking. In complexion fair, and with blue or gray eyes, he was tall as any Viking, as broad in the shoulder.

1910, Emerson Hough, chapter I, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:

Nurse Cramer had a cute nose and a radiant, blooming complexion dotted with fetching sprays of adorable freckles that Yossarian detested.

1961 November 10, Joseph Heller, “The Soldier in White”, in Catch-22 […], New York, N.Y.: Simon and Schuster, →OCLC, page 171:

The quality, colour, or appearance of the skin on the face.

It was a little unfortunate that the fib unfibbed gave their consultations something the complexion of that close understanding which exists between penitent and confessor.

1910, Bernard Capes, Why Did He Do It?, page 207:

(figuratively) The outward appearance of something.

That minister was galbet, or admiral of the realm, very much in his master’s confidence, and a person well versed in affairs, but of a morose and sour complexion.

1726 October 28, [Jonathan Swift], Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. […] [Gulliver’s Travels], volume I, London: […] Benj[amin] Motte, […], →OCLC, part I (A Voyage to Lilliput):

But the purely marginal jottings, done with no eye to the Memorandum Book, have a distinct complexion, and not only a distinct purpose, but none at all; this it is which imparts to them a value.


nubile

en-adj

nubile (comparative more nubile, superlative most nubile)

more nubile (comparative)
most nubile (superlative)

From French nubile, from Latin nūbilis (“marriageable”), from nūbō (“marry, to take as husband”), from Proto-Indo-European *snewbʰ- (“to marry, to wed”). Possibly cognate with Ancient Greek νύμφη (númphē, “bride, young wife, nymph”) (English nymph), but this is disputed.

cog

Sexually attractive (especially of a young woman).