Definition of "handsome"
handsome
adjective
comparative more handsome or handsomer, superlative most handsome or handsomest
Having a pleasing appearance, good-looking, attractive, particularly
Quotations
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 […], volumes (please specify |volume=I to X), London: George Bell & Sons […]; Cambridge: Deighton Bell & Co., published 1893–1899
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
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, 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, page 44
Of a man or boy: attractively manly, having a pleasing face and overall effect.
Quotations
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, page 149
Quotations
(of weather) Fine, clear and bright.
Quotations
Sunday, the sixth, we heaved up our sheet-anchor again, the day beginning with little wind, and continued handsome weather till eight at night, when the wind came to S. S. W. and it fell a snowing.
1808, John Pinkerton, A General Collection of the Best and Most Interesting Voyages and Travels in All Parts of the World, page 513
The story goes that James Whitcomb Riley, the poet, on a beautiful spring day, in making his way from his home to his office, was accosted by numerous friends on the way who were exclaiming most extravagantly on the beauty of the day. It was "Good morning, Mr. Riley, a fine day;" "Good morning, Mr. Riley, […] a handsome day;" […] .
1911, Farm Chemicals, page 60
Suitable or fit in action; marked with propriety and ease; appropriate.
Quotations
For a few days, every morning visit in Highbury included some mention of the handsome letter Mrs. Weston had received. “I suppose you have heard of the handsome letter Mr. Frank Churchill has written to Mrs. Weston? I understand it was a very handsome letter, indeed. Mr. Woodhouse told me of it. Mr. Woodhouse saw the letter, and he says he never saw such a handsome letter in his life.”
1815 December (indicated as 1816), [Jane Austen], chapter II, in Emma: […], volume I, London: […] [Charles Roworth and James Moyes] for John Murray
(obsolete) Of people and things: dexterous; skillful.
Quotations
That they [engines of war] be both easy to be carried and handsome to be moved and turned about.
1551, Thomas More, “(please specify the Internet Archive page)”, in Raphe Robynson [i.e., Ralph Robinson], transl., A Fruteful, and Pleasaunt Worke of the Best State of a Publyque Weale, and of the Newe Yle Called Utopia: […], London: […] [Steven Mierdman for] Abraham Vele, […]
Laſtly, for a theife it is ſo handſome, as it may ſeem it was firſt invented for him
1596 (date written; published 1633), Edmund Spenser, A Vewe of the Present State of Irelande […], Dublin: […] Societie of Stationers, […]; republished as A View of the State of Ireland […] (Ancient Irish Histories), Dublin: […] Society of Stationers, […] Hibernia Press, […] [b]y John Morrison, 1809,