How to Use ugly duckling in a Sentence

ugly duckling

noun
  • The house is an ugly duckling, but it has a lot of potential.
  • Man, only in a late-aughts rom-com is Katherine Heigl framed as the ugly duckling.
    Emma Specter, Vogue, 19 Mar. 2021
  • Maybe there is a happy ending in store for this ugly duckling hue, after all.
    Kelsey Kloss, ELLE Decor, 16 Aug. 2016
  • Did his school chums not know about the whole ugly duckling phenomenon?
    Lauren Le Vine, Redbook, 30 May 2013
  • Robinson and Nunn might have been viewed as ugly ducklings during the 2018 NBA draft, but that is ancient history now.
    Joey Yashinsky, Detroit Free Press, 11 Dec. 2019
  • Beethoven’s Fourth is not the ugly duckling of the symphonies so much as the modest, slender person crushed on the subway bench between two massive manspreaders.
    New York Times, 27 Mar. 2020
  • Sandwiched between the capital, Brussels, and the fairytale city of Bruges, Ghent delights in being the underdog, but the city is far from being the ugly duckling of the trio.
    National Geographic, 14 Nov. 2019
  • Back then, Grenache was a bit of an ugly duckling, as most people were drinking bigger, heavier wines, and Grenache is more medium bodied.
    John Kell, Fortune, 8 Dec. 2019
  • By borrowing a few tried and tested tricks, the industry’s ugly ducklings could turn out nicely.
    Carol Ryan, WSJ, 12 July 2019
  • But however avidly the world treated him like an enchanted princess, his mirror showed him an ugly duckling.
    Gary Indiana, Harper's Magazine, 25 May 2020
  • That ugly duckling dirt lot transformed into a swan, with catered charcuterie, carts selling cold beer and festive banners.
    Nancy Laturno Writer, San Diego Union-Tribune, 27 Dec. 2020
  • Consider a few other popular words that were once ugly ducklings.
    Time, 17 Jan. 2020
  • An Australian ballroom dancer makes an ugly duckling his partner and dares in competition to go flamenco.
    Ed Stockly, Los Angeles Times, 9 Apr. 2021
  • Now, like the ugly duckling that became a swan, the nearly $2 trillion crypto market—with all of its warts—seems to be undergoing a glow-up in the eyes of some of the world's most powerful financial institutions.
    Declan Harty, Fortune, 7 Apr. 2022
  • Off-the-rack 996 GT3s were once the underdogs of the track world, but their ugly duckling status later dissipated when their analogue traits became endearing to Porsche hardliners.
    Basem Wasef, Car and Driver, 15 Dec. 2020
  • The medium itself has long been the ugly duckling of American culture, a stealth art form whose secret, swanlike identity (more bird than plane) has been accorded widespread acclaim only in the past few decades.
    Michael Saler, WSJ, 4 Nov. 2021
  • So now, single and dateless, Padgett accepts a challenge to transform the school’s resident ugly duckling into an enviable hunk.
    Luke Winkie, Vulture, 1 Sep. 2021
  • After decades of being treated as the proverbial ugly duckling of the skin-care world, sunscreen seems to be finally getting its due appreciation and attention.
    Kaitlyn Yarborough, Southern Living, 10 June 2021
  • The soaring demand for warehouses, once the ugly duckling of the real estate industry, underscores their pivotal role in a complex global supply chain.
    New York Times, 16 Mar. 2022
  • The swimming pool, spa, contemporary decor (including custom furniture, signature joinery, and bespoke details like fixtures and lighting), and generous interior space turned the ugly duckling into a swan.
    Julia Zaltzman, Robb Report, 28 July 2021
  • For Nikki Glaser, among the comedians featured in the film, her childhood included overwhelming feelings of being an ugly duckling, multiple insecurities, a craving for attention and an eating disorder.
    Marianne Garvey, CNN, 7 Apr. 2021

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'ugly duckling.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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