(a) (Declension: fem belle; pl beaux) good-looking man, woman, handsome man, lovely, beautiful (less common) woman, animal, landscape, fine (frm or humorous), fine-looking woman; lovely, beautiful, great, great-looking (Infml) picture; être ~ garçon to be good-looking, be a good-looking lad (Infml), be a bit of a looker (Slang); le ~ monde high society; le ~ sexe the fair sex

(b) fine, lovely, sunny weather; il fait ~ the weather's nice, we've got nice weather; un ~ jour one fine day, one sunny day; (fig) one of these days, (in past) one day

(c) nice attitude, situation; (Infml) c'est pas ~ (ça) that's not nice; ce n'est pas ~ de tricher it's not nice to cheat, cheating's not nice; c'est trop ~ pour être vrai it's too good to be true; (ironic usage) le plus ~ de l'histoire, c'est que the best bit is that

(d) (fig) fine words, beautiful poetry; avoir un ~ talent to have great talent

(e) (fig: pejorative use) grand, grandiose words, poetry, speeches

(f) (fig: ironic use) good, right (Infml), proper slap, punch, smack; right, real, complete idiot, lier; terrible, awful lier; nasty shock, fright, injury; fine, right, real mess; une belle gifle a right slap (Infml), a good slap, a proper slap; c'est un ~ menteur he's a right lier, he's a complete lier; (Slang) t'es un ~ salaud! you're a complete (or) right (or) real swine!; (fig, Infml) ça me fait une belle jambe! a fat lot of good that is!

(g) avoir ~ faire qch however much he (etc) does sth; on a ~ insister, il ne viendra pas however much you insist, he won't come; on a ~ dire say what you like; j'ai ~ essayer, je ne comprends pas try as I might (or) however hard I try, I don't understand

(h) bel et bien well and truly

(a) le ~ what is beautiful, beauty

(b) (of dog) faire le ~ to sit up and beg