ugly duckling
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
Someone who is initially unwanted but later becomes valued
Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt
Người ban đầu không được mong muốn nhưng sau đó trở nên quý giá
Machine-translated — suggest a fix
Literally: a duckling that is ugly
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
The new employee was an ugly duckling, but soon proved herself to be a talented worker
AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)
Sources & notes
Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “ugly duckling” mean?
Someone who is initially unwanted but later becomes valued Literally: a duckling that is ugly
Is “ugly duckling” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.