(as) ugly as sin

Extremely visually displeasing or unattractive. This old car is all beat up and ugly as sin, but it's still going strong after all these years. I'm sure I looked as ugly as sin by that point, with my makeup smeared all over the place and my hair a total mess. Well, this wallpaper obviously has to go—it's ugly as sin!

See also: sin, ugly

*ugly as sin

Cliché extremely ugly. (*Also: as ~.) Why would anyone want to buy that dress? It's as ugly as sin! Harold is ugly as sin, but his personality is very charming.

See also: sin, ugly

ugly as sin

Physically or morally hideous, as in I can't think why she likes that dog; it's ugly as sin. This simile, first recorded in 1801, replaced the earlier ugly as the devil.

See also: sin, ugly

The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Copyright © 2003, 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

ugly as sin

If someone or something is as ugly as sin, they are very ugly. Even his kids were ugly as sin.

See also: sin, ugly

Collins COBUILD Idioms Dictionary, 3rd ed. © HarperCollins Publishers 2012

(as) miserable/ugly as ˈsin

(spoken) used to emphasize that somebody is very unhappy or ugly: He arrived at the party looking as miserable as sin. ♢ Some babies are as ugly as sin at that age.

(as) ugly as sin

mod. very ugly. This car’s as ugly as sin, but it’s cheap and dependable.

See also: sin, ugly

ugly as sin

verb

See as ugly as sin

See also: sin, ugly

ugly as sin

Hideous, either physically or spiritually. This simile appears to have replaced the earlier ugly as the devil, mentioned by Daniel Defoe in his History of the Devil (1726). The first appearance in print was in Maria Edgeworth’s Popular Tales of 1804: “Why, she is ugly as sin!”

See also: sin, ugly

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