ugly

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Hence the artificial attempt to settle what examples of the ugly (antipathetic) could be admitted in artistic representation, and for what reasons, and in what ways The answer was: that the ugly is admissible, only when it can be overcome_, an unconquerable ugliness, such as the disgusting or the nauseating_, being altogether excluded.

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Definitions (31)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (11)

  1. adjective Displeasing to the eye; unsightly.
  2. adjective Repulsive or offensive; objectionable: an ugly remark.
  3. adjective Chiefly Southern U.S. Rude: Don't be ugly with me.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (13)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (3)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (4)

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Examples (47)

  • It would have been unkind to call her ugly, but that was the direction in which she was going. —  Night Mare
  • Embracing the word "ugly" - so readily identified with everything popular design claims to have been a reaction against-seems a logical choice if we are to create a vision for the practice of design freed from the restrictions and prejudices of its past.
  • While we all eventually arrive at old and ugly - "ugly" is an entirely subjective judgment, of course, and for some of us, "body of a Greek god" counts as "ugly" - you're under no obligation to marry a man who's in a hurry to get there. —  Village Voice - The most recent 10 stories
  • Conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh has just launched the same attack against RNC chairman Michael Steele, who dared to say that Steele considered himself the head of the Republican party rather than Limbaugh and that Limbaugh's mega-partisan rhetoric was at times "ugly" - with the same kind of language, tactics and accuracy that he has used against Democrats, moderate Republicans, independents and moderates for years. —  The Moderate Voice
  • Whether you see it as beautiful or butt-ugly, the attention-getting style of the 2009 Acura TL is bestowed on a vehicle some $1,270 dearer than last year's model. —  The Car Connection
 

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Words tagged ugly

nipple · fart · grizely · igly · tuna · uranus · bulbous · vaginal · cunnilingus · rectum · pedagogy

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This word has been looked up 187 times.

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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

old ·  dirty ·  stupid ·  hideous

Used in the same contextWord Family

ugly:   uglier
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (3)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English, frightful, repulsive, from Old Norse uggligr, from uggr, fear.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (2)

  1. Early modern English also ougly; from Middle English ugly, uggely, uglike, from Icelandic uggligr, fearful, to be dreaded, from uggr, fear, + -ligr = English -ly: see ug, n., and -ly. Cf. Icelandic y¯gligr, terrible, from y¯gr, fierce.
  2. from ugly, adjective
 

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/ˈəgli/
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