beautn.adj.adv.int.

1866 ‘F. Kirkland’ Pictorial Bk. Anecd. 178/1 Hopeful is not a beauty..and though some of the rustic wits call him ‘Beaut’, he is well aware that they intend it for irony.

1896 G. Ade Artie i. 5 They was beauts too; you could n't beat 'em, not in a thousand years.

1903 A. H. Lewis Boss 272 I know that gang of card sharps,..an' they're a bunch of butes at that!

1911 H. Quick Yellowstone Nights xii. 318 His curlin' locks was matted an' mucilaged..an' from under his beetlin' brows..glared eyes with vi'lence an' crime in every glance. Verily, Aconite was a beaut!

1944 Coast to Coast 98 ‘We're a pair of beauts,’ he said with the semblance of a grin.

1989 N.Y. Woman Oct. 58/2 I had fallen into that old mustache-twirling cliché of thinking that just because she was a beaut she couldn't have a responsible position.

2005 GQ Sept. 154/1 Charles is an interesting person and the Princes are beauts.

1896 Churchman 1 Feb. 163/1 Look at the horses, Sib, aren't they just ‘beauts’?

1906 Truth (Sydney) 21 Oct. 2/7 Twig his boko. It's a beaut.

1936 P. G. Wodehouse Laughing Gas xiii. 139 I seemed to be getting a lot of steam behind the punch... I got those two bozoes a couple of beauts!

1973 N.Y. Law Jrnl. 23 Apr. The third paragraph is a beaut. For obscurity it has no equal.

1993 S. Palwick Flying in Place 61 He's going to have a real beaut of a coronary one of these days.

2011 Independent on Sunday 24 Apr. (New Review) 3/4 It's one thing to openly criticise my lumpy face, quite another to question the aesthetic prowess of my bike. Which is, I'll add, a beaut.

1894 Nassau Literary Mag. (Princeton Univ.) June 117 That young Freshman..has a ‘beaut punkin’ who's a ‘winner’.

1918 L. J. Villiers Changing Year 8 Twould be beaut Ter 'ave the cow w'ere he mus' foller suit.

1957 ‘N. Shute’ On Beach ii. 71 It's been a beaut evening.

1964 N. B. Harvey Any Old Dollars Mister 67 He trotted down into the surf and did a beaut belly flop into the water.

1985 P. Ziegler Mountbatten ii. xxvii. 343 She's a beaut, but he's more beaut.

2013 Bendigo (Victoria) Advertiser (Nexis) 22 May 26 She is absolutely thrilled at the beaut job the workmen have done.

1953 Sydney Morning Herald 15 Dec. 2/7 I can talk beaut now.

1981 P. Radley Jack Rivers & Me xvii.162 You sang beaut tonight, Muriel.

2000 Sunday Star-Times (Auckland) (Nexis) 30 July (Business section) 3 Any list of Kiwi battlers doing real beaut.

1954 Sun-Herald (Sydney) 25 Apr. 48/3 ‘Beaut!’ exclaimed Howard.., one of the eight boys [in the audience].

1981 C. Wallace-Crabbe Splinters 22 ‘And could somebody type these three letters for me?’.. ‘OK, Mr Bessier. I'm not particularly busy.’.. ‘Beaut. Thanks.’

2010 A. Powell Sex, Power & Consent iv. 59 They'd be like, ‘Oh my gosh’, but guys would be like ‘Oh beaut mate’.

1914 N.Z. Truth 22 Aug. 7/3 ‘You Beaut!’ bawled the bookies when The Chief outed Bercola in the Lincoln Steeplechase.

1945 A. W. Upfield Death of Swagman 202 The sergeant's gruff voice repeated and repeated: ‘You beaut! You little beaut!’

1968 K. Weatherly Roo Shooter 22 The bushie grabbed a plate and headed for the camp oven. ‘You beaut,’ he said. ‘Coffee'll do.’

1989 Sydney Morning Herald (Nexis) 23 Dec. 13 A year or more ago, such a figure [sc. a $1.6 billion deficit] would have been thought appalling. Now we think: ‘You beaut, it's not as bad as it was.’

2008 K. Greenwood Murder on Midsummer Night (2009) 210 The table was laid buffet style... ‘You beaut!’ he enthused. ‘What a spread!’

1961 J. Olsen (title of painting) Journey into the you beaut country no. 1.

1997 J. B. L. Chan Changing Police Culture ix. 202 It's a bit like saying I've got a ‘you beaut’ Mickey Mouse intelligence system and everyone says, oh, that'll be the answer to everything.

2008 N.Z. Herald (Nexis) 11 July He was the next you-beaut, whiz-bang new thing on the jumping scene.