Standard Lemma guide
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
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noun
A unit of measurement of beauty, corresponding to the amount of beauty required to launch one ship.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: humorous, informal
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
History
From milli- + Helen, referring to Helen of Troy, the maiden so beautiful that her abduction by Paris sparked the Trojan War and was said, in Christopher Marlowe's 1604 Tragical History of Doctor Faustus, to have "launched a thousand ships".
