elegant

comparative more elegant · superlative most elegant

1. Characterised by or exhibiting elegance; having grace, refinement, or tasteful simplicity.

   1 more example

   You could just use ordinary shop-bought kecap manis to marinade the meat, but making your own is easy, has a far more elegant fragrance and is, above all, such a great brag! Flavouring kecap manis is an intensely personal thing, so try this version now and next time cook the sauce down with crushed, split lemongrass and a shredded lime leaf.

   2015 October 27, Matt Preston, The Simple Secrets to Cooking Everything Better, Plum, →ISBN, page 192

   Synonyms: classy, graceful, refined, dressy · Antonyms: inelegant, clumsy

2. Characterised by minimalism and intuitiveness while preserving exactness and precision.

   an elegant solution

   1 more example

   "For myself, because of the baggage of 30 years of balkanisation, I think the elegant solution is to take operations back into the public sector. It will mean you can have a whole-industry approach to running the railway, unencumbered by contractual differences."

   2025 February 19, Paul Clifton, “I am absolutely committed to reforming the railway”, in RAIL, number 1029, page 41

   Synonyms: neat · Antonyms: inelegant, sloppy, haphazard

3. IrelandarchaiccolloquialFine; doing well.

   'An' how are ye, Jemmie—how's every inch iv you?' enquired Moggy of the boy, when his agitation was a little blown over. 'I'm elegant, thank ye,' he answered; 'an' what's the matther wid ye all? I cum through the kitchen, and seen no one.'

   1863, Sheridan Le Fanu, The House by the Churchyard

plural elegants

1. An elegant parrot.

   But if the Aviarist be ambitious to keep the lovely, but destructive, members of the Parrot family, he must be content with grass alone, because Parrakeets (except the weak-billed Turquoisines and Elegants) would destroy the shrubs and trees in a day.

   1895, The Avicultural Magazine, Volume 1, The Avicultural Society for the Study of Foreign and British Birds, page 22