beau geste
Americanplural
beaux gestesnoun
Etymology
Origin of beau geste
literally: beautiful gesture
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Still, in city politics, even the beau geste can be fraught.
From New York Times • Oct. 15, 2015
Britons who love a beau geste were deliriously enthusiastic.
From Time Magazine Archive
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Their taste for the beau geste turns out to be their undoing.
From Time Magazine Archive
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It was one of the few times in history that the Solicitor General refused to argue a case before the Supreme Court, and it was a beau geste that cost Griswold his job.
From Time Magazine Archive
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The Woolworth Building does not scrape the sky; it greets it, salutes it with a beau geste.
From Roving East and Roving West by Lucas, E. V. (Edward Verrall)
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.