ugly stick
1
9.3
- noun
- /ˈʌɡli stɪk/
- Offensive
:
palo de la fealdad
- The sculpture was so bizarre that it seemed like it was made from the leftovers of an ugly stick.
Examples
-
Look who got beat with the ugly stick.
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When she walked into the party in that dress, I thought she had been hit with an ugly stick.
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Her dad must've hit her with the ugly stick.
-
He may have a great personality, but he definitely looks like he was hit with an ugly stick.
Synonyms
1
9.9
A stone figure on a building or a person who looks ugly
1
9.9
To call someone ugly as a joke
1
9.9
A joking way to say that someone looks very ugly
1
9.9
An insulting name for someone considered 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
To look much less attractive after a sudden change
Something that looks very ugly and unpleasant
A face that people think is very ugly
Looks very ugly and a little funny, especially in the face
A face that looks very ugly
Antonyms
How Ugly
Surface Forms
Morphology
ugly + stick
The parts 'ugly' and 'stick' are individually transparent, and together suggest something that causes ugliness, but the phrase is a conventional humorous metaphor ('hit with the ugly stick') where the stick is not literal. A B1 learner could probably infer a negative/appearance-related sense from the constituents but would need exposure to grasp the idiomatic usage and pragmatic force, so it is only partially predictable.
Etymology
Ugly stick comes from a joking image: people imagine someone being 'hit with the ugly stick'. The idea is a stick that hits someone and makes them ugly, so calling someone that means they look 'very unattractive'.