ugly as... adj.
(US) used in combs. meaning very ugly or unwell-looking.
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | John Bull in America 302: The women all as ugly as sin. | |
| Narrative of the Life of D.C. (1934) 39: She was as ugly as a stone fence. | |
| Season Ticket 194: The other [daughter] is as ugly as sin. | |
| Interior Jrnl (Stanford, KY) 4 Aug. 1/5: She may be as ugly as a mud fence jeweled with hop-toads, clumsy as a cork-leg or a club-foot, and stupid as a boiled owl. | |
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Folk-Phrases of Four Counties 11: As ugly as sin. Said of an ill-favoured individual. | |
 | Herald (Los Angeles) 28 Oct. 9/1: He was ugly as sin . | |
| Shields Dly Gaz. 8 June 2/6: Bill [...] was as mild as a kitten when he was sober, but ugly as a mad bull when he had a few drinks in him. | |
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | Bulletin (Sydney) 26 Nov. 35/1: ‘He’s ugly as a jew lizard,’ answered Susy with vigor. / ‘Snakes alive! Ugly, is it!’. | |
| ‘Words from Northwest Arkansas’ in DN III:i 99: ugly as a mud-fence, ugly as a mud-fence stuck with tadpoles, (so) ugly that he’d stop a bread wagon, (so) ugly that he’d stop a nigger funeral, adj. phr. Extremely ill-looking. ‘I know I’m as ugly as a mud-fence stuck with tadpoles, but I’m not the only one.’. | |
| Western Folklore XXV:3 196: As ugly as a mud fence. | |
| Campus Sl. Apr. 8: ugly as spitting/pooting in church – really bad, tasteless. |
In phrases
exceptionally unattractive.
| Professional Anecdotes III 194: Pope was hump-backed; Goldsmith was bandy-legged; Dr. Johnson was a Russian-bear [...] and Gibbon, the historian, was as ugly as a buck-horse. | |
| Jack Tench 104: She was too fat to rise without assistance, and, as they described her, ‘ugly as a buck-horse’. |
(Aus./N.Z./US) very ugly.
| Barry McKenzie [comic strip] in Complete Barry McKenzie (1988) 69: I once done one of me ma, but she turned out as ugly as a hatful of arseholes. | |
| (con. 1950s) Unit Pride (1981) 26: She’s uglier than a bagful of assholes. | |
| Lily on the Dustbin 25: If you had no claim to great beauty you were ‘as ugly as a hatful of arseholes.’. | |
| in Maledicta VIII 236: That girl is uglier than a hatful of assholes. | |
| Age Sat. Extra (Melbourne) 4 Jan. 4/6: She’s as ugly as a bagful of monkeys. | |
![[NZ]](/static/img/flags/nz.png "New Zealand") | Dict. of Kiwi Sl. 12/1: bagful of busted arseholes, an extreme state of ugliness, if preceded by ‘as ugly as’; or ill health, usually owing to a hangover, if preceded by ‘I feel like.’ NZA. | |
| Llama Parlour 97: To put it bluntly, these guys were as ugly as a bag full of bums. | |
| Lingo 88: Bodily and mental afflictions, real, imagined or fervently wished, also feature strongly in Lingo. One can be [...] ugly as [...] a bagful of busted boils. | |
| Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. [as cit. 1988]. |
see under bronze n.2
see under shithouse rat n.
very angry, unpleasant.
| Wolfville 243: But the Mexican gets ugly as a t’ran’tler at this an’ with one motion he lugs out a six-shooter. |
a general term of contempt; thus go to the billy-fencer and sell yourself for bull-beef.
| , , | | Sl. Dict. 88: bull-beef, a term of contempt; ‘as ugly as bull-beef,’ ‘go to the billy-fencer and sell yourself for bull-beef.’. |