Elegant \El"e*gant\, a. [L. elegans, -antis; akin to eligere to
   pick out, choose, select: cf. F. ['e]l['e]gant. See Elect.]
   1. Very choice, and hence, pleasing to good taste;
      characterized by grace, propriety, and refinement, and the
      absence of every thing offensive; exciting admiration and
      approbation by symmetry, completeness, freedom from
      blemish, and the like; graceful; tasteful and highly
      attractive; as, elegant manners; elegant style of
      composition; an elegant speaker; an elegant structure.
      [1913 Webster]

            A more diligent cultivation of elegant literature.
                                                  --Prescott.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. Exercising a nice choice; discriminating beauty or
      sensitive to beauty; as, elegant taste.

   Syn: Tasteful; polished; graceful; refined; comely; handsome;
        richly ornamental.
        [1913 Webster]

	

	elegant
     adj 1: refined and tasteful in appearance or behavior or style;
            "elegant handwriting"; "an elegant dark suit"; "she
            was elegant to her fingertips"; "small churches with
            elegant white spires"; "an elegant mathematical
            solution--simple and precise and lucid" [ant: inelegant]
     2: suggesting taste, ease, and wealth [syn: graceful, refined]
     3: of seemingly effortless beauty in form or proportion
     4: refined or imposing in manner or appearance; befitting a
        royal court; "a courtly gentleman" [syn: courtly, formal,
         stately]

	

	228 Moby Thesaurus words for "elegant":
   Attic, Babylonian, Ciceronian, Corinthian, advantageous, aesthetic,
   aesthetically appealing, apt, arabesque, artistic, attractive,
   august, auspicious, awe-inspiring, awful, barbaric, baroque,
   beauteous, beautiful, becoming, beneficial, benevolent, bon, bonny,
   braw, bueno, busy, capital, chaste, chic, chichi, choice,
   civilized, classic, classy, clear, clever, clothes-conscious,
   cogent, comely, commendable, cosmopolitan, courtly, cultivated,
   cultured, dainty, dapper, dashing, debonair, decent, decorous,
   delicate, deluxe, dignified, direct, discerning, discriminating,
   dressed to advantage, dressed to kill, easy, elaborate,
   endowed with beauty, estimable, euphemistic, euphuistic, excellent,
   expedient, exquisite, extravagant, eye-filling, facile, fair,
   famous, fancy, fashionable, fastidious, favorable, fine, finished,
   flamboyant, florid, flowerlike, flowery, flowing, fluent,
   formalistic, frilly, fussy, genteel, glorious, good, goodly,
   goody good-good, goody-goody, graceful, gracile, gracious, grand,
   grandiose, handsome, healthy, heavy, helpful, high-wrought,
   imposing, impressive, in, ingenious, jaunty, kind, labored,
   laudable, limpid, lovely, lucid, luxuriant, luxurious, magnificent,
   majestic, mincing, modest, modish, moresque, namby-pamby, natty,
   natural, neat, nice, nifty, nobby, noble, opulent, ornate,
   ostentatious, overelaborate, overelegant, overlabored, overnice,
   overprecise, overrefined, overworked, overwrought, palatial,
   pedantic, pellucid, perspicuous, picturesque, plain, pleasant,
   pleasing, plush, polished, posh, precieuse, precious, precisian,
   precisianistic, precisionistic, pretty, pretty-pretty, princely,
   profitable, proper, proud, pulchritudinous, pure, puristic, rare,
   recherche, refined, regal, restrained, rich, ritzy, rococo, round,
   royal, seemly, select, sharp, simpering, simple, skillful, sleek,
   smart, smooth, smug, snazzy, soigne, soignee, sophisticated, sound,
   spiffy, splendacious, splendid, splendiferous, spruce, stately,
   straightforward, style-conscious, stylish, suave, subtle,
   sumptuous, superb, superfancy, superfine, superior, swank, swanky,
   swell, tasteful, terse, tricksy, trig, trim, tripping, unaffected,
   unlabored, urbane, useful, valid, very good, virtuous, well-bred,
   well-dressed, well-groomed, with it

	

	elegant adj. [common; from mathematical usage] Combining simplicity,
   power, and a certain ineffable grace of design. Higher praise than
   `clever', `winning', or even cuspy.

   The French aviator, adventurer, and author Antoine de Saint-Exupe'ry,
   probably best known for his classic children's book "The Little Prince",
   was also an aircraft designer. He gave us perhaps the best definition of
   engineering elegance when he said "A designer knows he has achieved
   perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is
   nothing left to take away."

	

	elegant
     
        (From Mathematics) Combining simplicity, power, and a certain
        ineffable grace of design.  Higher praise than "clever",
        "winning" or even cuspy.
     
        The French aviator, adventurer, and author Antoine de
        Saint-Exup'ery, probably best known for his classic children's
        book "The Little Prince", was also an aircraft designer.  He
        gave us perhaps the best definition of engineering elegance
        when he said "A designer knows he has achieved perfection not
        when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing
        left to take away."
     
        [Jargon File]
     
        (1994-11-29)