Defn: A mental conception regarded as a standard of perfection; a model of excellence, beauty, etc. The ideal is to be attained by selecting and assembling in one whole the beauties and perfections which are usually seen in different individuals, excluding everything defective or unseemly, so as to form a type or model of the species. Thus, the Apollo Belvedere is the ideal of the beauty and proportion of the human frame. Fleming. Beau ideal. See Beau ideal.
IDEALESS
I*de"a*less, a.
Defn: Destitute of an idea.
IDEALISM
I*de"al*ism, n. Etym: [Cf. F. idéalisme.]
1. The quality or state of being ideal.
2. Conception of the ideal; imagery.
3. (Philos.)
Defn: The system or theory that denies the existence of material bodies, and teaches that we have no rational grounds to believe in the reality of anything but ideas and their relations.
IDEALIST
I*de"al*ist, n. Etym: [Cf. F. idéaliste.]
1. One who idealizes; one who forms picturesque fancies; one given to romantic expectations.