ugly cry

verb

To weep to the extent that one's face contorts.

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Meanings

verbugly cry (third-person singular simple present ugly cries, present participle ugly crying, simple past and past participle ugly cried)

present singular third person ugly cries · participle present ugly crying · participle past ugly cried · past ugly cried

  1. intransitiveslangTo weep to the extent that one's face contorts.

    […] and then she grabbed onto his shirt and cried, he held her and tried to calm her, but knew that she just needed to ugly cry, for a while.

    2019, M. L. Aiken, Lucky Beginnings: Blue Moon Valley: The story of Tom and Maggie
    1 more example

    And if I'm in line at the grocery store, I don't want to ugly cry. So in situations like that, I avoid my friends. I will try to breeze past them in the frozen food aisle.

    2019, Melissa Maimone, The Radiant Midnight, page 60
Cite this entry
APA

ugly cry. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/ugly%20cry

MLA

“ugly cry.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/ugly%20cry. Accessed November 5, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “ugly cry,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/ugly%20cry.

Source: ugly cry on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.