houri

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“
Dońa Chonita changed so swiftly from the typical woman of her race to an houri, almost a bacchante,--only an extraordinary refinement of nature kept her this side of the line,--that an American would be tempted to call her eccentric Alvarado lifted his hand and pointed through the window to the stars.

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Definitions (6)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. noun A voluptuous, alluring woman.
  2. noun One of the beautiful virgins of the Koranic paradise.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (1)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (1)

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Examples (50)

  • Posh originally entered the argot of England's underworld in the seventeenth century in such compounds as posh-houri , meaning "halfpence," and soon became a slang term for "money" in general. —  The Word Detective
  • Poe takes Virginia's hand Poe Virginia, you who have the face of a houri, the form of a sylph, and the heart of an angel, will you be my wife Mrs. C. Edgar Poe My gentle one, can I not teach you to love me Vir Teach me? —  Semiramis and Other Plays Semiramis, Carlotta And The Poet
  • My reward will be in Paradise, where a houri is standing in the shade, above a vase of gold and silver fish, with a kiss on her lip, and an unbroken pair of green slippers in her hand for me.' —  Imaginary Conversations and Poems A Selection
  • An old woman, full of lamentation, led us to the sick couch, where lay a creature, beautiful in shape as a houri. —  The Pacha of Many Tales
  • She was not a "funded houri," but a poor yatow_, a "forked head" or slave girl, whom he purchased on a lucky day, and, smitten with her charms, made her his wife. —  An Australian in China Being the Narrative of a Quiet Journey Across China to Burma
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Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. French, from Persian ḥūrī, from Arabic ḥūrīya, nymph, houri, from ḥūr, pl. of 'aḥwaru, feminine of ḥawrā'u, possessing ḥawar, intense whiteness of the sclera contrasting with deep blackness of the iris of the eye; see ḥwr in Semitic roots.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. from French houri, representing Persian huri, plural hūr, from Arabic hūriya, plural hūr, a nymph of Paradise, literally black-eyed, from ahwar, feminine hawrā, black-eyed.
 

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/ˈhaʊri/
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