Idiom
ugly duckling
Meaning
A young person who is ugly, but who is expected to become beautiful or handsome as they mature.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Examples
“She was an ugly duckling who grew into a confident woman.”
“As a teenager, he felt like an ugly duckling, but by his twenties he had become strikingly handsome.”
“The awkward, bespectacled girl everyone ignored in school had been an ugly duckling, transforming years later into a celebrated actress whose beauty seemed almost accidental.”
Examples
simple
“She was an ugly duckling who grew into a confident woman.”
contextual
“As a teenager, he felt like an ugly duckling, but by his twenties he had become strikingly handsome.”
complex
“The awkward, bespectacled girl everyone ignored in school had been an ugly duckling, transforming years later into a celebrated actress whose beauty seemed almost accidental.”
Origin
Calque of Danish grim ælling. From the fairy tale of a duckling, considered ugly, that matures into a magnificent swan.
Key words
Related idioms
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