houri

1. (Islam) A beautiful virgin girl supposed to dwell in Paradise for the enjoyment of the faithful.Examples: "They went through the courtyard, past a naked copper houri tilting a water-jar that merely dripped[.]"; "We cannot go into the technical details of his methodology but it allows Luxenberg, to the probable horror of all Muslim males dreaming of sexual bliss in the Muslim hereafter, to conjure away the wide-eyed houris promised to the faithful in suras XLIV.54; LII.20, LV.72, and LVI.22. Luxenberg's new analysis, leaning on the Hymns of Ephrem the Syrian, yields "white raisins" of "crystal clarity" rather than doe-eyed, and ever willing virgins - the houris."; "The repetition of material about the houri suggests that the popularization of that figure occurred as early as the ninth century and continued well into the twelfth century. By then, the houri had become a kind of metonymy for the Garden, as well as an accepted object. A new role of the houri as the superlative being of the Garden emerged through the use of traditions, and most of all the structure of the text. Al-Qadi's text provides an excellent example of the importance of the houri."

2. (by extension) Any voluptuous, beautiful woman.Examples: "I would not exchange this one little English girl for the Grand Turk’s whole seraglio; gazelle-eyes, houri forms and all!"; "“The town is full of temptations, sir,” continued Pen. The old gentleman thought of that houri, Mrs. O’Leary."broadly