English Explanatory Dictionary

ugly

English dictionary entry

Meanings

adj
  1. Displeasing to the eye; aesthetically unpleasing.
  2. Displeasing to the ear or some other sense.
  3. Offensive to one's sensibilities or morality.
  4. Ill-natured; crossgrained; quarrelsome.
  5. Unpleasant; disagreeable; likely to cause trouble or loss.
noun
  1. Ugliness.
  2. An ugly person or thing.
  3. Any product whose size and shape prevents it from fitting neatly on a pallet.
  4. A shade for the face, projecting from a bonnet.
verb
  1. To make ugly (sometimes with up).

Pronunciation

/ˈʌɡli/ En-uk-ugly.ogg En-us-ugly.ogg En-us-ugly1.ogg /ˈɜɡli/ /ˈɘ̞ɡli/

Word forms

ugly uglier ugliest ougly uglies uglying uglied

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-).

Synonyms

bad beat butters butt-ugly clapped coyote ugly deform fuckfaced fugly like the back end of a bus plug-ugly ugly ugly as sin unpretty hideous homely repulsive unattractive uncomely unsightly displeasing corrupt immoral vile

Antonyms

attractive beautiful gorgeous handsome pretty sightly pleasing moral comely good-looking nice

Related words

ug ugliness ugly man ugly person ugly woman

Derived words

fugly rear one's ugly head uggo ugli uglification uglify uglily ugly hot ugly law beat with the ugly stick big and ugly enough big enough and ugly enough big ugly dish butt-ugly butt ugly coyote ugly fall out of the ugly tree and hit every branch Hollywood ugly plug-ugly pug-ugly ugly American ugly as bull-beef ugly as sin ugly cry ugly customer ugly duckling ugly finder ugly-finder ugly man ugly milk-cap ugly sister ugly stick ugly up
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