Word.ws English Dictionary

age before beauty

age before beauty phrase: a phrase said to allow older people to go before younger ones.

Phrase

age before beauty

  1. (idiomatic) A phrase said to allow older people to go before younger ones.
    • It is recorded that Mrs. Parker and a snooty debutante were both going in to supper at a party: the debutante made elaborate way, saying sweetly "Age before beauty, Mrs. Parker." "And pearls before swine," said Mrs. Parker, sweeping in.1938 September 16, John Carter, “Best Sellers and the Atlantic”, in The Spectator, page 448

Questions about age before beauty

What does age before beauty mean?
Age before beauty means a phrase said to allow older people to go before younger ones.
What part of speech is age before beauty?
Age before beauty is a phrase.

Words near age before beauty in the dictionary

  1. AGDQ
  2. age
  3. age adjustment
  4. age adjustments
  5. age ain't nothing but a number
  6. age before beauty
  7. age class
  8. age classes
  9. age compression
  10. age difference
  11. age differences

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: age before beauty (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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