Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
😣 To make ugly 💻 To scramble code
to uglify

to uglify

9.6
Make computer code smaller and harder to read
  • verb
  • /ˈʌɡləˌfaɪ/
  • Specialized
translation icon : minificar
  • We decided to uglify the JavaScript before deploying the site to improve load speed.

Examples

  • The build pipeline automatically uglified all vendor scripts to reduce bandwidth during peak hours.

  • They are considering uglifying the client-side code and then serving it from a CDN.

  • The developer decided to uglify the code for better performance.

  • He uglified the JavaScript files before deployment.

  • We decided to uglify the JavaScript files to improve website load times.

  • The development team will uglify the source code to minimize its size before release.

  • To enhance security, the programmer chose to uglify the code, making it difficult to read.

Synonyms

to mangle
vsto uglify
  • Specialized
1 8.9

To change program names to hide them or make them shorter

applies whole source minification including whitespace removal and other transforms to reduce size

How Obfuscated

to encrypt
  • Specialized
54 6.7
to obfuscate
  • Formal
17 9.1
to uglify
  • Specialized
9.6
to minify
1 8.4
to format
13 3.6

Surface Forms

uglify infinitive
uglified past
uglified past participle
uglifying present participle
uglifies third person singular

Morphology

uglify = ugly (semi-transparent) = ugly + ify

Formed from 'ugly' + '-ify', but the computing sense ('minify/obfuscate code') is a metaphorical and technical extension not directly deducible from the basic meaning.

Etymology

Uglify in computing is a playful name from ugly and -ify, meaning 'make', and it describes making code small and hard to read. That's why programmers say they 'uglify' files when they want to reduce size and make the code messy for people to read.