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View synonyms for ugly duckling

ugly duckling

noun

  1. an unattractive or unpromising child who becomes a beautiful or much-admired adult.


ugly duckling

noun

  1. a person or thing, initially ugly or unpromising, that changes into something beautiful or admirable
“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012


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Word History and Origins

Origin of ugly duckling1

First recorded in 1880–85; after the bird in the story of the same name by Hans Christian Andersen
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Word History and Origins

Origin of ugly duckling1

an allusion to The Ugly Duckling, a story by Hans Christian Andersen
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Idioms and Phrases

A homely or unpromising individual who grows into an attractive or talented person, as in She was the family ugly duckling but blossomed in her twenties . This term alludes to Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale about a cygnet hatched with ducklings that is despised for its clumsiness until it grows up into a beautiful swan. The tale was first translated into English in 1846, and the term was used figuratively by 1871.
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Example Sentences

Eliza was the ugly duckling of her high school, voted “Most Butt” of her senior class.

It's fashionable to lament the status of the novella: unjustly neglected, the ugly duckling of the literary world, etc.

They were an odd contrast—the mother and son—suggesting the homely but immortal comparison of the hen with the ugly duckling.

No, my dear, you were never an ugly duckling, but what I mean is that you have turned from a fairy into a pretty nymph.

We all know the story of the ugly duckling, and the little promise which it gave of its future beauty.

You all know the story of the “Ugly Duckling,” and how, after all, it became a beautiful white swan.

In the family nest he is the ugly duckling; in the world he is persecuted.

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

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