ugly

comparative uglier · superlative ugliest · alternative obsolete ougly

1. Displeasing to the eye; aesthetically unpleasing.

   the ugly view of his deformed crimes

   1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto IX”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 48

   4 more examples

   O, I have passed a miserable night, / So full of ugly sights, of ghastly dreams.

   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]

   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!

   1843, Thomas Carlyle, “XVII: The Beginnings”, in Past and Present, book 2

   In Athens he looked up from his ouzo at what he called the ugliest people in the world.

   1957 September 5, Jack Kerouac, On the Road, New York, N.Y.: Viking Press, →OCLC

   President Obama gave an important press conference today and even took questions from the press, but all of this was overshadowed by the fact that Obama debuted one of the ugliest suits in the history of this great nation.

   2014 August 28, Arit John, “No One Heard Anything Obama Just Said Because His Tan Suit Was So Loud”, in The Atlantic, archived from the original on 30 Nov 2025

   Synonyms: hideous, homely, repulsive, unattractive, uncomely, unsightly

2. Displeasing to the ear or some other sense.

   Synonyms: displeasing, repulsive, unattractive

3. Offensive to one's sensibilities or morality.

   He played an ugly trick on us.

   1 more example

   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.

   1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC

   Synonyms: corrupt, immoral, vile

4. Southern USIll-natured; crossgrained; quarrelsome.

   an ugly temper; to feel ugly

5. derogatoryfigurativelyUnpleasant; disagreeable; likely to cause trouble or loss.

   an ugly customer, wound or rumor

   2 more examples

   an ugly story that was being noised about in newsrooms across the nation

   With all this competition, expect things to get ugly.

plural uglies · alternative obsolete ougly

1. slanguncountableUgliness.

   I want your ugly / I want your disease.

   2009, Lady Gaga, RedOne, Bad Romance

2. countableslanguncountableAn ugly person or thing.
3. countableinformaluncountablelogisticsAny product whose size and shape prevents it from fitting neatly on a pallet.

   Non-standard products (abnormal or 'uglies'): many distribution operations are designed to cater for standard palletized products.

   2022, Alan Rushton, Phil Croucher, Peter Baker, The Handbook of Logistics and Distribution Management, page 591

   1 more example

   These are firstly for products which need a cool room; secondly for products which can be stored on a standard pallet without overhang; and thirdly for products known as "the uglies" which always overhang a standard pallet.

   1983, Australian Transport, page 16

4. UKcountabledatedinformaluncountableA shade for the face, projecting from a bonnet.

   […] camp-stools, telescopes, poetry-books, blue uglies, red petticoats, and parasols of every hue.

   1857, Charles Kingsley, “(please specify the page)”, in Two Years Ago, volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Macmillan and Co., →OCLC

present singular third person uglies · participle present uglying · participle past uglied · past uglied · alternative obsolete ougly

1. nonstandardtransitiveTo make ugly (sometimes with up).

   I move noiselessly, eat my food carefully without uglying the dining table with its remnants, fold my bedsheets in neat rectangles and place them on the bed in perfect symmetry.

   2011, P. A. Krishnan, Muddy River

   2 more examples

   There is time when the absence of either integrity or humility has uglied the face of the church before the world and turned Christianity into just another cocoon of condemnation and hypocrisy.

   2012, Najib George Awad, And Freedom Became a Public-square, page 197

   He had spent half of his journey mulling over how he would savour his revenge. He could already envision her pretty little form lying prone at his feet. He would take great pleasure in uglying her up a little before killing her.

   2014, Jonathan Crocker, A Dream of Hope and Sorrow