belle
noun/bɛl/
Etymology From French belle (“beautiful”), from Latin bella.
1
An attractive woman.
- In her new dress she felt like the belle of the ball.
- Another style of necklace among these Papuan belles is to wear two, each hanging on one side of the neck and under the opposite arm, so as to cross each other.1869, Alfred Russel Wallace, The Malay Archipelago, volume II, London: Macmillan and Co., page 255:
2
Dated A fellow gay man.
- Derived terms
- aquabelle, belle dame sans merci, belledom, Belle Époque, bellehood, cagebelle, croshabell, southern belle, volleybelle
- Related terms
- bad belle, belle assemblée, Belle Creek, belle dame, Belle Époque, belle laide, belle passion, belles-lettres, Southern belle