• ougly(obsolete)

Inherited fromMiddle Englishugly,uggely,uglike, borrowed fromOld Norseuggligr(“fearful, dreadful, horrible in appearance”), fromuggr(“fear, apprehension, dread”) (possibly related toagg(“strife, hate”)), equivalent toug +‎-ly. Cognate withScotsugly,uglie,Icelandicugglegur. 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 Bulgarianгрозен(grozen) (< Proto-Slavic*grozьnъ), Russianстра́шный(strášnyj) (< Proto-Slavic*strašьnъ <*straxъ); Latinfoedus (< Proto-Indo-European*bʰeyh₂-).

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• IPA^(key):/ˈʌɡli/
• Rhymes:-ʌɡli
• Homophone:ugli

ugly (comparativeuglier,superlativeugliest)

1. Displeasing to the eye;aesthetically unpleasing.
   • 1590,Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto IX”, inThe Faerie Queene. […], London:[…] [John Wolfe] forWilliam Ponsonbie,→OCLC, stanza 48:

     theugly view of his deformed crimes

   • c.1593 (date written),William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Richard the Third: […]”, inMr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London:[…]Isaac Iaggard, andEd[ward] Blount, published1623,→OCLC,[Act I, scene iv]:

     O, I have passed a miserable night, / So full ofugly sights, of ghastly dreams.

   • 1843,Thomas Carlyle, “XVII: The Beginnings”, inPast and Present, book 2:

     When the poor man’s integuments, no longer nourished from within, become dead skin, mere adscititious leather and callosity, wearing thicker and thicker,uglier anduglier;[…]— yes then, you may say, his usefulness once more is quite obstructed;[…]it is time thathe take to bed, and prepare for departure, which cannot now be distant!

   • 1957,Jack Kerouac,On the Road, Viking Press,→OCLC:

     In Athens he looked up from his ouzo at what he called theugliest people in the world.

2. Displeasing to the ear or some other sense.
3. Offensive to one'ssensibilities ormorality.

   He played anugly trick on us.

   • 1918,W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XII, inThe Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.:The Bobbs-Merrill Company,→OCLC:

     All this was extraordinarily distasteful to Churchill. It wasugly, gross. Never before had he felt such repulsion when the vicar displayed his characteristic bluntness or coarseness of speech. In the present connexion—or rather as a transition from the subject that started their conversation—such talk had been distressingly out of place.

4. (Southern US) Ill-natured; crossgrained; quarrelsome.

   anugly temper; to feelugly

5. Unpleasant; disagreeable; likely to cause trouble or loss.

   anugly rumour; anugly customer; anugly wound

   With all this competition, expect things to getugly.

• (displeasing to the eye):hideous,homely,repulsive,unattractive,uncomely,unsightly
• (displeasing to the ear or some other sense):displeasing,repulsive,unattractive
• (offensive to one's sensibilities or morality):corrupt,immoral,vile
• See alsoThesaurus:ugly

• (antonym(s) of“displeasing to the eye”):attractive,beautiful,gorgeous,handsome,pretty,sightly
• (antonym(s) of“displeasing to the ear or some other sense”):attractive,pleasing
• (antonym(s) of“offensive to one's sensibilities or morality”):moral

• ug

• Sranan Tongo:ogri

ugly (countable anduncountable,pluraluglies)

1. (slang,uncountable)Ugliness.
   • 2009,Lady Gaga,RedOne,Bad Romance:

     I want yourugly / I want your disease.

2. (slang) An ugly person or thing.
3. (logistics,informal) Anyproduct whose size and shape prevents it from fitting neatly on apallet.
   • 1983,Australian Transport, page16:

     These are firstly for products which need a cool room; secondly for products which can be stored on a standard pallet without overhang; and thirdly for products known as "theuglies" which always overhang a standard pallet.

   • 2022, Alan Rushton, Phil Croucher, Peter Baker,The Handbook of Logistics and Distribution Management, page591:

     Non-standard products (abnormal or 'uglies'): many distribution operations are designed to cater for standard palletized products.

4. (UK,informal,dated) Ashade for theface,projecting from abonnet.
   • 1857,Charles Kingsley, “(please specify the page)”, inTwo Years Ago, volume(please specify |volume=I to III), Cambridge, Cambridgeshire:Macmillan and Co.,→OCLC:

     […] camp-stools, telescopes, poetry-books, blueuglies, red petticoats, and parasols of every hue.

ugly (third-person singular simple presentuglies,present participleuglying,simple past and past participleuglied)

1. (transitive,nonstandard) To make ugly (sometimes withup).
   • 2011, P. A. Krishnan,Muddy River:

     I move noiselessly, eat my food carefully withoutuglying the dining table with its remnants, fold my bedsheets in neat rectangles and place them on the bed in perfect symmetry.

   • 2012, Najib George Awad,And Freedom Became a Public-square, page197:

     There is time when the absence of either integrity or humility hasuglied the face of the church before the world and turned Christianity into just another cocoon of condemnation and hypocrisy.

   • 2014, Jonathan Crocker,A Dream of Hope and Sorrow:

     He had spent half of his journey mulling over how he would savour his revenge. He could already envision her pretty little form lying prone at his feet. He would take great pleasure inuglying her up a little before killing her.

• guly