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the quality present in a thing or person that gives intense pleasure or deep satisfaction to the mind, whether arising from sensory manifestations (as shape, color, sound, etc.), a meaningful design or pattern, or something else (as a personality in which high spiritual qualities are manifest).
a beautiful person, especially a woman.
a beautiful thing, as a work of art or a building.
Often, beauties. something that is beautiful in nature or in some natural or artificial environment.
an individually pleasing or beautiful quality; grace; charm:
a vivid blue area that is the one real beauty of the painting.
Informal. a particular advantage:
One of the beauties of this medicine is the freedom from aftereffects.
(usually used ironically) something extraordinary:
My sunburn was a real beauty.
something excellent of its kind:
My old car was a beauty.
Contemporary Examples

Slovenia had a 2-0 lead at half time and then the U.S. showed up, scoring two beauties in the second half.
World Cup Primer Joshua Robinson June 11, 2010

And he devotes an entire chapter to the beauties of the ampersand.
Mad About Fonts Malcolm Jones October 3, 2011

We meet Nell, a plump, insecure student at Drama Arts who laments losing lead roles to the beauties dominating her profession.
This Week’s Hot Reads Lizzie Crocker November 8, 2011

One of the beauties of Islam is there is no Pope, so to each her own.
First Friday of Ramadan For Palestinians Maysoon Zayid July 11, 2013

There were Chinese beauties stepping gingerly in their red-soled Louboutin heels.
The East Is Red: Diane von Furstenberg’s High-Fashion China Bash Melinda Liu March 31, 2011

Historical Examples

He cares nothing, for example, for what we call the beauties of nature.
Hours in a Library, Volume I. (of III.) Leslie Stephen

What is there that I can do with all the beauties of my parlors?
Ester Ried Yet Speaking Isabella Alden

I hope you will continue to transfer the beauties of Glenraven after I become a dweller there.
Ralph Wilton’s weird Mrs. Alexander

And so this wench is to stock the parish with beauties, I hope.
Joseph Andrews, Vol. 2 Henry Fielding

There were a dozen glorious American beauties in her compartment when she entered it.
The Trail of Conflict Emilie Baker Loring

noun (pl) -ties
the combination of all the qualities of a person or thing that delight the senses and please the mind
a very attractive and well-formed girl or woman
(informal) an outstanding example of its kind: the horse is a beauty
(informal) an advantageous feature: one beauty of the job is the short hours
(informal, old-fashioned) a light-hearted and affectionate term of address: hello, my old beauty!
interjection
(NZ) (ˈbjuːdɪ). an expression of approval or agreement Also (Scot, Austral, and NZ) you beauty
n.

early 14c., “physical attractiveness,” also “goodness, courtesy,” from Anglo-French beute, Old French biauté “beauty, seductiveness, beautiful person” (12c., Modern French beauté), earlier beltet, from Vulgar Latin bellitatem (nominative bellitas) “state of being handsome,” from Latin bellus “pretty, handsome, charming,” in classical Latin used especially of women and children, or ironically or insultingly of men, perhaps from PIE *dw-en-elo-, diminutive of root *deu- “to do, perform, show favor, revere” (see bene-). Famously defined by Stendhal as la promesse de bonheur “the promise of happiness.”

[I]t takes the one hundred men in ten million who understand beauty, which isn’t imitation or an improvement on the beautiful as already understood by the common herd, twenty or thirty years to convince the twenty thousand next most sensitive souls after their own that this new beauty is truly beautiful. [Stendhal, “Life of Henry Brulard”]

Replaced Old English wlite. Concrete meaning “a beautiful woman” is first recorded late 14c. Beauty sleep “sleep before midnight” is attested by 1850. Beauty spot is from 1650s. Beauty parlor is from 1894.

The sudden death of a young woman a little over a week ago in a down-town “beauty parlor” has served to direct public attention to those institutions and their methods. In this case, it seems, the operator painted on or injected into the patron’s facial blemish a 4-per-cent cocaine solution and then applied an electrode, the sponge of which was saturated with carbolized water. [“The Western Druggist,” October 1894]

Beauté du diable (literally “devil’s beauty”) is used as a French phrase in English from 1825.

adjective

Excellent; superior; great: I thought the guy was beauty (1970s+ Canadian)
In addition to the idiom beginning with beauty