hit with the ugly stick
1
9.9
- idiom
- Offensive
:
[ofensivo] decir que alguien es muy feo
- She may have been hit with the ugly stick, but she's incredibly kind and talented.
Examples
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His friends always tease him, saying he was hit with the ugly stick as a child.
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People laughed when the comedian joked that he’d been hit with the ugly stick.
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He looks like he was hit with the ugly stick!
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Did she really get hit with the ugly stick?
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After seeing his photos from the party, we joked that he must have been hit with the ugly stick.
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When Sarah walked into the room, we couldn't help but comment that she looked like she had been hit with the ugly stick.
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His comically awkward facial expression made us laugh and say he had surely been hit with the ugly stick.
Synonyms
1
9.9
A joking way to say that someone looks very ugly
1
2.0
A person or thing that is not pleasant to look at
A person or thing that looks very ugly, said as a joke
Antonyms
How Unattractive
171
5.1
- Offensive
1
9.9
866
1.0
37
1.8
50
2.5
Surface Forms
Morphology
hit + with + the + ugly + stick
The phrase creates a clear metaphorical image using known words ('hit', 'with', 'ugly', 'stick') so a learner can plausibly infer that someone has been made unattractive as if struck by an 'ugly stick'. However, the expression is idiomatic and culturally humorous rather than literal, and its pragmatic jocular nuance may not be fully predictable to a B1 learner without exposure.
Etymology
Hit with the ugly stick gives a simple, funny image: imagine someone being 'hit' by an imaginary ugly stick that makes them look 'very unattractive'. So people say it as a playful joke when they mean 'very unattractive'.