INDEX:
1. person
2. not good-looking
3. object/building etc
RELATED WORDS
opposite
↑ BEAUTIFUL
see also
↑ LOOK
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1. person
▷ ugly /ˈʌgli/ [adjective]
extremely unattractive, with a face that is not at all nice to look at :
▪ We hated our uncle. He was fat and ugly, with tiny eyes and a long, pointed nose .
▪ An ugly little man came over and offered to buy me a drink.
▷ hideous /ˈhɪdiəs/ [adjective]
extremely ugly, especially because you were born with something wrong with you :
▪ In fairy stories the Prince is always very handsome, and the witch hideous.
▪ a man with a hideous twisted lip
▷ repulsive /rɪˈpʌlsɪv/ [adjective]
very ugly and extremely unpleasant to look at, especially so that people do not like to look at you :
▪ Delia was frightened of the operation, because afterwards she knew she would look repulsive.
repulsive to
▪ The patient’s disease was so terrible that his own skin was repulsive to him.
▷ grotesque /grəʊˈtesk/ [adjective]
extremely ugly in a strange or unnatural way :
▪ The boy was twisting one side of his face in grotesque imitation of his grandfather.
▪ Suddenly the grotesque figure of the hunchback Quasimodo loomed out of the darkness.
grotesquely [adverb]
▪ Jacob lay on the bed with his mouth open. His face was purple and grotesquely swollen.
▷ unsightly /ʌnˈsaɪtli/ [adjective usually before noun]
an unsightly spot, mark, hair on your face etc is very unattractive :
unsightly scar/fat/mark/spot/hair etc
▪ The accident left Simon with unsightly scars.
▪ Electrolysis gets rid of unsightly facial hair.
▷ he’s/she’s no oil-painting British /she’s no Miss America American /hiːz, ʃiːz nəʊ ˈɔɪl peɪntɪŋ, ʃiːz nəʊ mɪs əˈmerɪkə/ informal
use this as a humorous way of saying that someone is ugly :
▪ ‘What’s Anna’s new boyfriend like?’ ‘Well, he’s nice, but he’s no oil painting.’
2. not good-looking
▷ not very good-looking /nɒt veri ˌgʊd ˈlʊkɪŋ/ [adjective phrase]
not nice to look at - use this as a less direct way of saying someone is unattractive :
▪ He’s a nice guy, but not very good-looking.
▷ unattractive/not attractive /ˌʌnəˈtræktɪv◂, nɒt əˈtræktɪv/ [adjective]
not nice to look at and not sexually attractive in a physical way :
▪ Like many teenage girls, she was worried that she was unattractive.
▪ He wasn’t a particularly attractive man, but there was something about him that women liked.
find somebody unattractive
think that someone is unattractive
▪ She was crazy about Carl, and couldn’t understand why we found him unattractive.
▷ plain /pleɪn/ [adjective]
someone who is plain, especially a woman, is not ugly but is not at all good-looking :
▪ Catherine, who had been rather plain as a child, was now an attractive young woman.
▪ Miles was the plain one in an otherwise good-looking family.
▷ homely /ˈhəʊmli/ [adjective] American
someone who is homely is not at all good-looking :
▪ The waitress was a homely girl from Kansas.
▪ Brad was a serious boy, very ordinary-looking but not downright homely.
▷ not much to look at /nɒt ˌmʌtʃ tə ˈlʊk æt/ [adjective phrase]
if you say that someone is not much to look at, you mean that they are not good-looking, especially when other things about them are attractive :
▪ Edward’s not much to look at, but he has a great personality.
3. object/building etc
▷ ugly /ˈʌgli/ [adjective]
very unpleasant to look at :
▪ Local residents think that the new shopping centre is one of the ugliest buildings in the city.
▪ The room was bare except for a few pieces of ugly furniture.
▷ unsightly /ʌnˈsaɪtli/ [adjective]
something that is unsightly is unpleasant to look at, and spoils the appearance of the things around it :
▪ Bushes and plants make the perfect screen for unsightly objects such as dustbins.
▪ Tight bras and knickers can cause unsightly bulges under close-fitting clothes.
▷ unattractive /ˌʌnəˈtræktɪv◂/ [adjective]
not at all pleasant to look at :
▪ The town is surrounded by large, unattractive housing estates that nobody wants to live in.
▪ Wearing an unattractive blouse and old-fashioned skirt, Lisa looked older than she was.
▷ hideous /ˈhɪdiəs/ [adjective]
extremely ugly :
▪ One of our wedding presents was a hideous clock.
▪ Emma was wearing an absolutely hideous purple and orange dress.
▷ revolting /rɪˈvəʊltɪŋ/ [adjective]
something that is revolting is so ugly that you do not like to look at it :
▪ Remember that three piece suite Mrs Killeen had? It was grey and mustard. It was absolutely revolting!
▪ Who’s that TV presenter who always wears those revolting sweaters?
▷ monstrosity /mɒnˈstrɒsɪti, mɒnˈstrɒsətiǁmɑːnˈstrɑː-/ [countable noun]
a very large ugly building or object :
▪ I rented a Spanish-style monstrosity in Beverly Hills while my apartment was redecorated.
▪ This building is another monstrosity celebrated as a brilliant piece of architecture.
▷ an eyesore /ən ˈaɪsɔːʳ/ [singular noun]
a large and very ugly building that you cannot avoid seeing :
▪ They built a huge office block right next to the old cathedral - what an eyesore!
▪ Intended to be the world’s largest casino, it now stands as an eyesore near the big tourist and convention hotels of New Orleans.
▷ blot on the landscape /ˌblɒt ɒn ðə ˈlændskeɪpǁˌblɑːt-/ [noun phrase] British
something that spoils the view, especially an ugly building :
▪ The container site at North Farm is a real blot on the landscape.