ugly
- 01 A2 Elementary
adj.not beautiful or pleasant to look at.
adj.aesthetically displeasing or unattractive to the eye.
Simple“The old factory was an ugly building made of grey concrete.”
In context“The city council debated whether to demolish the ugly brutalist structures that dominated the skyline or attempt a costly renovation.”
SynonymsAntonyms - 02 B1 Intermediate
adj.unpleasant, mean, or likely to involve violence.
adj.morally offensive, threatening, or likely to result in conflict or danger.
Simple“The argument turned ugly when they started shouting at each other.”
In context“The mood in the crowd turned ugly as the protesters realised the police were not going to let them pass the barricade.”
Synonyms - 03 C1 Advanced
adj.behaving in a mean or angry way.
adj.exhibiting an ill-natured, quarrelsome, or cross-grained temperament.
Simple“Don't be so ugly to your sister; she was only trying to help.”
In context“He had a reputation for getting ugly after a few drinks, often picking fights with total strangers for no reason.”
UsageIn this sense, the word is often followed by the preposition 'to' when directed at a person.
Teacher's tipThis usage is particularly common in the Southern United States to describe a person's behaviour rather than their appearance.
- 04 C2 Proficiency
n.a person or thing that is not pleasant to look at.
n.a person or object perceived as aesthetically displeasing.
Simple“He felt like a bit of an ugly standing next to the famous models.”
In context“The critic dismissed the new sculpture as a total ugly, claiming it ruined the harmony of the park.”
Synonymseyesore - 05 C2 Proficiency
v.to make something look worse or less beautiful.
v.to render something aesthetically displeasing; frequently used with the particle 'up'.
Simple“The new billboards really ugly up the view of the mountains.”
In context“The developers were accused of trying to ugly up the neighbourhood to drive down property prices before buying more land.”
UsageOften functions as a phrasal verb: 'to ugly up'.
Inherited from Middle English ugly, uggely, uglike, borrowed from Old Norse uggligr (“fearful, dreadful, horrible in appearance”), from uggr (“fear, apprehension, dread”) (possibly related to agg (“strife, hate”)), equivalent to ug + -ly. Cognate with Scots ugly, uglie, Icelandic ugglegur. Meaning softened to "very unpleasant to look at" around the late 14th century, and sense of "morally offensive" attested from around 1300. For the meaning development compare Bulgarian грозен (grozen) (< Proto-Slavic grozьnъ), Russian стра́шный (strášnyj) (< Proto-Slavic strašьnъ < straxъ); Latin foedus (< Proto-Indo-European bʰeyh₂-).
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.