Definition of "belle" []

• A popular, attractive girl or woman, especially the most attractive one of a group: the belle of the ball. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• ""Louisa Castlefort, _si belle, si belle_, so beautifully dressed!""
• "Though, fair demoiselles, I have been chosen the belle, I feel as I gaze upon the galaxy of beauty around me that I, "she added in gay tones," have no occasion to blush at my own loveliness, for I feel that the gods have been so lavish in their gifts of everything that is lovely that they have surely become bankrupt and have kept no charms for me, and that Monsieur Eau Clair must have looked at my poor graces through rose-coloured spectacles when he called me _la belle_ and made me the recipient of gifts fit for a queen."
• "Sharon Lawrence as the fading southern belle is great."