ugly Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. adjective displeasing to the senses
    • an ugly face
    • ugly furniture
  2. adjective satellite inclined to anger or bad feelings with overtones of menace
    surly.
    • a surly waiter
    • an ugly frame of mind
  3. adjective satellite morally reprehensible
    worthless; unworthy; vile; slimy; wretched; despicable.
    • would do something as despicable as murder
    • ugly crimes
    • the vile development of slavery appalled them
    • a slimy little liar
  4. adjective satellite provoking horror
    frightful; horrifying; atrocious; horrible.
    • an atrocious automobile accident
    • a frightful crime of decapitation
    • an alarming, even horrifying, picture
    • war is beyond all words horrible"- Winston Churchill
    • an ugly wound

WordNet


Ug"ly adjective
Etymology
Icel. uggligr fearful, dreadful; uggr fear (akin to ugga to fear) + -ligr (akin to E. -ly, like). . Cf. Awe.
Wordforms
comparative Uglier ; superlative Ugliest
Definitions
  1. Offensive to the sight; contrary to beauty; being of disagreeable or loathsome aspect; unsightly; repulsive; deformed.
    The ugly view of his deformed crimes. Spenser.
    Like the toad, ugly and venomous. Shak.
    O, I have passed a miserable night, So full of ugly sights, of ghastly dreams. Shak.
  2. Ill-natured; crossgrained; quarrelsome; as, an ugly temper; to feel ugly. Colloq. U. S.
  3. Unpleasant; disagreeable; likely to cause trouble or loss; as, an ugly rumor; an ugly customer. Colloq.
Ug"ly noun
Definitions
  1. A shade for the face, projecting from the bonnet. Colloq. Eng. C. Kingsley.
Ug"ly transitive verb
Definitions
  1. To make ugly. R. Richardson.

Webster 1913