ugly duckling

1. 1.

   an ugly or unpromising child who grows into a beautiful or worthy person

   Broaderperson

Questions about ugly duckling

What does ugly duckling mean?

ugly duckling means "an ugly or unpromising child who grows into a beautiful or worthy person".

Is ugly duckling a common word?

ugly duckling is banded "Rare" — specialist or archaic — most readers will not have met it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.