coyote ugly
1
9.9
- adjective
- /kaɪˈoʊti ˈʌɡli/
- Slang
:
desastroso
- Many people experience being coyote ugly after a long evening of drinking with friends.
Examples
-
I'm coyote ugly.
Fiction book (1999) -
You coyote ugly.
Fiction book (1994) -
Frida, you are not coyote ugly.
Fiction book (1999) -
But coyote ugly... well, it's so totally offensive... it's when a guy wakes up with a girl sleeping on his arm.
Fiction book (1999) -
After last night's party, I woke up feeling coyote ugly and regretting my choices.
-
She looked in the mirror and realized she felt coyote ugly after the wild night out.
Synonyms
2
7.2
Very unpleasant to look at or to be with
1
9.9
A joking way to say that someone looks very ugly
Antonyms
How Attractive
∞
1.0
680
1.0
50
2.5
37
1.8
866
1.0
- Slang
1
9.9
171
5.1
Surface Forms
Morphology
coyote + ugly
Although 'coyote' and 'ugly' are literal words, the idiom 'coyote ugly' has a culture-specific, humorous meaning about waking up after heavy drinking or feeling extremely unattractive/regretful that is not predictable from the constituents. A B1 learner who knows the words 'coyote' and 'ugly' would be unlikely to infer this particular idiomatic sense without prior exposure, so the expression is opaque.
Etymology
Coyote ugly comes from one popular story: a man wakes after a drunken night and finds the person next to him very unattractive, so he pretends his arm is stuck and bites it like a trapped coyote would to get free. That's why coyote ugly means 'feeling very unattractive' or regretting a night out.