ugly
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈʌɡli/
rhymes: -ʌɡli
homophone: ugli
Forms: form: uglier
form: ugliest
form: ougly
Etymology: Inherited from Middle English ugly, uggely, uglike, borrowed from Old Norse uggligr (“fearful, dreadful, horrible in appearance”), from uggr (“fear, apprehension, dread”) (possibly related to agg (“strife, hate”)), equivalent to ug + -ly. Cognate with Scots ugly, uglie, Icelandic ugglegur. Meaning softened to "very unpleasant to look at" around the late 14th century, and sense of "morally offensive" attested from around 1300.
For the meaning development compare Bulgarian грозен (grozen) (< Proto-Slavic *grozьnъ), Russian стра́шный (strášnyj) (< Proto-Slavic *strašьnъ < *straxъ); Latin foedus (< Proto-Indo-European *bʰeyh₂-).
Senses: examples: text: the ugly view of his deformed crimes
ref: 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto IX”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 48:
text: O, I have passed a miserable night, / So full of ugly sights, of ghastly dreams.
ref: c. 1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Richard the Third: […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iv]:
text: When the poor man’s integuments, no longer nourished from within, become dead skin, mere adscititious leather and callosity, wearing thicker and thicker, uglier and uglier;[…]— yes then, you may say, his usefulness once more is quite obstructed;[…]it is time that he take to bed, and prepare for departure, which cannot now be distant!
ref: 1843, Thomas Carlyle, “XVII: The Beginnings”, in Past and Present, book 2:
text: In Athens he looked up from his ouzo at what he called the ugliest people in the world.
ref: 1957, Jack Kerouac, On the Road, Viking Press, →OCLC:
glosses: Displeasing to the eye; aesthetically unpleasing.
glosses: Displeasing to the ear or some other sense.
examples: text: He played an ugly trick on us.
text: All this was extraordinarily distasteful to Churchill. It was ugly, gross. Never before had he felt such repulsion when the vicar displayed his characteristic bluntness or coarseness of speech. In the present connexion—or rather as a transition from the subject that started their conversation—such talk had been distressingly out of place.
ref: 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
glosses: Offensive to one's sensibilities or morality.
examples: text: an ugly temper; to feel ugly
glosses: Ill-natured; crossgrained; quarrelsome.
examples: text: an ugly rumour; an ugly customer; an ugly wound
text: With all this competition, expect things to get ugly.
glosses: Unpleasant; disagreeable; likely to cause trouble or loss.
Synonyms: sense: displeasing to the eye
word: hideous
sense: displeasing to the eye
word: homely
sense: displeasing to the eye
word: repulsive
sense: displeasing to the eye
word: unattractive
sense: displeasing to the eye
word: uncomely
sense: displeasing to the eye
word: unsightly
sense: displeasing to the ear or some other sense
word: displeasing
sense: displeasing to the ear or some other sense
word: repulsive
sense: displeasing to the ear or some other sense
word: unattractive
sense: offensive to one's sensibilities or morality
word: corrupt
sense: offensive to one's sensibilities or morality
word: immoral
sense: offensive to one's sensibilities or morality
word: vile
word: bad
word: beat
word: butters
word: butt-ugly
word: clapped
word: coyote ugly
word: deform
word: fuckfaced
word: fugly
word: like the back end of a bus
word: plug-ugly
word: ugly
word: ugly as sin
word: unpretty
Derived terms: word: fugly
word: rear one's ugly head
word: uggo
word: ugli
word: uglification
word: uglify
word: uglily
word: ugly hot
word: ugly law
sense: Compound words and expressions
word: beat with the ugly stick
sense: Compound words and expressions
word: big and ugly enough
sense: Compound words and expressions
word: big enough and ugly enough
sense: Compound words and expressions
word: big ugly dish
sense: Compound words and expressions
word: butt-ugly
sense: Compound words and expressions
word: butt ugly
sense: Compound words and expressions
word: coyote ugly
sense: Compound words and expressions
word: fall out of the ugly tree and hit every branch
sense: Compound words and expressions
word: Hollywood ugly
sense: Compound words and expressions
word: plug-ugly
sense: Compound words and expressions
word: pug-ugly
sense: Compound words and expressions
word: ugly American
sense: Compound words and expressions
word: ugly as bull-beef
sense: Compound words and expressions
word: ugly as sin
sense: Compound words and expressions
word: ugly cry
sense: Compound words and expressions
word: ugly customer
sense: Compound words and expressions
word: ugly duckling
sense: Compound words and expressions
word: ugly finder
sense: Compound words and expressions
word: ugly-finder
sense: Compound words and expressions
word: ugly man
sense: Compound words and expressions
word: ugly milk-cap
sense: Compound words and expressions
word: ugly sister
sense: Compound words and expressions
word: ugly stick
sense: Compound words and expressions
word: ugly up
Related terms: word: ug
word: ugliness
word: ugly man
word: ugly person
word: ugly woman