ugly duckling

For this ugly duckling we worked on elongating the neck and reducing the waddle, so she moved more gracefully.

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.