Elégant. adj. [elegans, Latin.]
- Pleasing with minuter beauties.
Trifles themselves are elegant in him. Pope.
There may'st thou find some elegant retreat. London.
- Nice; not coarse; not gross.
Polite with candour, elegant with ease. Pope.
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The London quote is from Johnson’s own poem London:
[…]
Couldst thou resign the park and play content,
For the fair banks of Severn or of Trent;
There might’st thou find some elegant retreat,
Some hireling senator’s deserted seat;
And stretch thy prospects o’er the smiling land,
For less than rents the dungeons of the Strand:
[…]
from The Works of Samuel Johnson. LL. D. with an Essay on His Life and Genius, by Arthur Murphy, esq. Third Complete American Edition. In Two Volumes. New York: Harper & Brothers, Vol. 1, p. 547.