ugly duckling

IPA: ˈʌgɫidˈʌkɫɪŋ

(idiomatic) A young person who is ugly, but who is expected to become beautiful as they mature.

Examples of "ugly-duckling" in Sentences

His acceptance and approval helped me through the tough, ugly-duckling years of my youth.
It was her way of exacting revenge for being bullied in her buck-toothed, ugly-duckling days.
Perhaps it was growing into beauty after an ugly-duckling childhood that made her so infuriatingly oblivious.
Lynn's sweet, ugly-duckling performance in Georgy Girl stood out in that film's then-risqué look at swinging '60s London.
But since Levine took over as music director in 1976, the orchestra has gradually turned from a plain-if not ugly-duckling into a swan.
Red Bull even fastened large soda cans to the tops of a fleet of bright-red Suzuki X-90s, ugly-duckling two-seaters that sold for just two years, in order to advertise its energy drink.
Pan (Faunus): His is a classic ugly-duckling story; despite the fact that he was half-goat, and smelled it, this guy split himself up into many mini Pans and got it on with all the ladies ... and all at once.
The first episodes alternate between a studio living-room set, which progresses from banal to budget-conscious to baroque, and a real live ugly-duckling house, which turns into a well-coordinated swan under Gilliatt's direction.
Lynn Redgrave, a member of a powerful acting dynasty who first made an impression in unglamorous 1960s screen roles, such as a small role in "Tom Jones" and the impulsive ugly-duckling star of "Georgy Girl" and went on to an erratic, occasionally compelling career on stage, screen and TV, died May 2 at her apartment in New York.