Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Displeasing to the eye; unsightly.
- adjective Repulsive or offensive; objectionable.
- adjective Chiefly Southern US Rude.
- adjective New England Unmanageable. Used of animals, especially cows or horses.
- adjective Morally reprehensible; bad.
- adjective Threatening or ominous.
- adjective Likely to cause embarrassment or trouble.
- adjective Marked by or inclined to anger or bad feelings; disagreeable.
- noun One that is ugly.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To make ugly; disfigure; uglify.
- Unpleasing or repulsive in appearance; offensive to the sight; of very disagreeable aspect.
- Morally repulsive or deformed; hideous; base; vile.
- Disagreeable; offensive; suggestive of or threatening evil; associated with disadvantage or danger: as, an ugly rumor of defeat.
- Ill-natured; cross-grained; quarrelsome; ill-conditioned.
- Threatening painful or fatal consequences; dangerous: as, an ugly blow; an ugly cut.
- Synonyms Unsightly, homely, ill-favored, hard-favored, hideous.
- Cross, sulky, morose, ill-tempered, crabbed.
- noun pl. uglies (-liz). An ugly person.
- noun A shade for the eyes worn as an appendage to the bonnet by women about the middle of the nineteenth century. It was generally of the character of a calash, but smaller. See
sunshade .
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun Colloq. Eng. A shade for the face, projecting from the bonnet.
- adjective Offensive to the sight; contrary to beauty; being of disagreeable or loathsome aspect; unsightly; repulsive; deformed.
- adjective Colloq. U. S. Ill-natured; crossgrained; quarrelsome
- adjective colloq. Unpleasant; disagreeable; likely to cause trouble or loss.
- transitive verb rare To make ugly.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective
Displeasing to the eye; notaesthetically pleasing. - adjective Displeasing to the ear or some other sense.
- adjective
Offensive to one'ssensibilities ormorality . - noun slang, uncountable
ugliness - noun slang An ugly person or thing.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective morally reprehensible
- adjective provoking horror
- adjective displeasing to the senses
- adjective inclined to anger or bad feelings with overtones of menace
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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"But I _wasn't_ in fun, you ugly, naughty, _ugly_ boy," retorted Hoodie, by this time most evidently losing her temper.
Hoodie Mrs. Molesworth 1880
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III.v. 62 (305, 9) [Foal is most foul, being foul to be a scoffer] [W: being found] The sense of the received reading is not fairly represented; it is, _The ugly seem most ugly, when, _ though _ugly, they are scoffers.
Notes to Shakespeare — Volume 01: Comedies Samuel Johnson 1746
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Must say the present head of Telstra would go under the title ugly american type but American's don't have a lock on arrogance.
Whirlpool.net.au 2009
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Adam Zeis, an editor at a website called Crackberry.com, was wearing what he called an ugly Christmas sweater T-shirt.
Things Got Ugly, and That Was the Point Marshall Heyman 2011
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He testified that he worked on Sept. 11, 2001, and continued working at Ground Zero for months while engaged in what he called an "ugly" custody battle for his 14-year-old daughter.
Officer Denies Rape Charge Tamer El-Ghobashy 2011
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The prime minister objected to what he called ugly remarks when Iraqi President Jalal Talabani said Turkey had meddled in Iraq's affairs.
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The prime minister objected to what he called ugly remarks when Iraqi President Jalal Talabani said Turkey had meddled in Iraq's affairs.
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The fact that art is constantly using what we call the ugly as well as what we call the commonplace, and turning both these into new forms of beauty, is a fact that considerably complicates the situation.
The Complex Vision John Cowper Powys 1917
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'Well, I don't know what you call ugly,' he answered, 'but if you had seen her stare, you would have thought her ugly enough!
Home Again George MacDonald 1864
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The defense secretary's Conservative Party supporters fought back Wednesday against what they called an ugly smear campaign against the 50-year-old Fox, who married in 2005, with his former flatmate Werritty serving as best man.
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I’m in full support of the ethos behind the David Chang-popularized term “ugly delicious”—the idea that it’s generally more important for food to taste good than it is for it to look good—and I’m mostly repulsed by the idea of “doin’ it for the ’gram,” as in Instagram, especially when it comes to food.
The Dream of an Easy Week-Night Dinner Condé Nast 2022
sonofgroucho commented on the word ugly
I always want to spell this "uggly". Does this make me a bad person?
August 3, 2007
reesetee commented on the word ugly
No, but it might make you a person who likes the letter G. ;->
August 3, 2007
rolig commented on the word ugly
If brotherly means "like a brother," does ugly mean "like an ugh!"? So maybe it should be spelled "ughly"?
December 2, 2007
bilby commented on the word ugly
"She was remarkably ugly. I mean the kind of ugly that makes me want to say she was Los Angeles ugly. She was freeway on freeway, she was concrete wall built to screen off dysfunctional slum, she was plastic palm tree behind Hollywood Boulevard. At best I could contemplate embracing her at arms' length, but the horizon is further than that."
December 13, 2007
Prolagus commented on the word ugly
You see the boy/girl's at the bar
Everyone thinks she's really ugly
But I shut my eyes
And the star of it is Photo Jenny.
(Photo Jenny, by Belle and Sebastian)
December 31, 2008
pinkltinkle commented on the word ugly
U-G-L-Y
You ain't got no alibi
You ugly
Yeah, yeah
you ugly
June 22, 2009
chained_bear commented on the word ugly
Another definition here.
July 17, 2009