Meanings
present singular third person uglifies · participle present uglifying · participle past uglified · past uglified
- transitiveTo make ugly; to destroy or worsen the appearance or attractiveness of.
She uglifies every thing near her.
1792, Frances Burney, Journals and Letters, Penguin, published 2001, page 3451 more example
These guys around that block had this thing about how I was uglifying the neighborhood.
1999, Jonathan Lethem, Motherless Brooklyn, Vintage, page 75 - intransitiveTo become ugly.
Inevitably those bodies age and uglify under her influence, but if they are outstandingly beautiful at the outset, that process takes longer.
1986, Piers Anthony, Golem in the Gears
Synonyms & antonyms
More synonyms by meaning
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
From ugly + -fy. Sense 3 by analogy with prettify.
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Bulgarian загрозявам
- загрозявам (zagrozjavam)to make ugly
Catalan enlletgir
- enlletgirto make ugly
Chinese Mandarin 醜化 /丑化
- 醜化 /丑化 (chǒuhuà)to make ugly
Esperanto malbeligi
- malbeligito make ugly
Finnish rumentaa
- rumentaato make ugly
French enlaidir
- enlaidirto make ugly
German verunstalten, hässlich machen
- verunstaltento make ugly
- hässlich machento make ugly
- häßlich machento make ugly
Italian imbruttire, deformare
- imbruttireto make ugly
- deformareto make ugly
Japanese 醜くする, 醜化する
- 醜くする (minikuku suru)to make ugly
- 醜化する (shūka suru)to make ugly
Latin dēformāre
- dēformāreto make ugly
Polish oszpecać, oszpecić
- oszpecaćto make ugly
- oszpecićto make ugly
Portuguese enfear
- enfearto make ugly
Spanish afear
- afearto make ugly
Swedish förfula
- förfulato make ugly
Welsh hagru, anharddu
- hagruto make ugly
- anhardduto make ugly
Cite this entry
uglify. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/uglify
“uglify.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/uglify. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “uglify,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/uglify.
Source: uglify on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.