back end of a bus
- idiom
- Offensive
:
feísimo
- That dress looks like the back end of a bus!
Examples
-
He wore a shirt so loud it made him look like the back end of a bus.
-
She joked that her new shoes made her feet look like the back end of a bus.
-
After the long flight, I felt like the back end of a bus.
-
She has a face like the back end of a bus.
-
After the long flight, I felt like the back end of a bus due to my disheveled appearance.
-
He wore a shirt so loud that it made him look like the back end of a bus.
-
She joked that her new shoes were so clunky they made her feet look like the back end of a bus.
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
Looks very ugly and a little funny, especially in the face
Antonyms
How Unattractive
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase literally denotes the rear part of a bus (derivable from 'back' + 'end' + 'bus'), so learners will grasp the concrete image; however the evaluative meaning 'unattractive/ugly' is a metaphorical simile and relies on cultural/pragmatic inference rather than straightforward composition. Because the literal composition helps but does not fully predict the evaluative sense without exposure, it is only partially transparent to a B1 learner.
Etymology
Back end of a bus comes from the picture of a bus's rear, which is often dirty and dented. So, saying someone looks like the back end of a bus means they look 'unattractive' or 'untidy'.