# He's so ugly. He's a ____(some kind of animal)?



## i14d14

The guy is so ugly. He is a ______.
1. lion
2. tiger
3. dog
4. hero

A question my friend asked me. I feel that only a native speaker could answer this. What is the answer?


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## VicNicSor

It's most likely "dog".

DOG:


> _offensive _someone who is not attractive, especially a woman


Macmillan dictionary


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## lingobingo

What a strange question! 

There's no specific idiom in English that answers the question. Pick whatever animal you like. But what kind of animal is a hero?!


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## sdgraham

Sometimes you see "ugly" and "dog." together.
See: http://gizmodo.com/the-worlds-ugliest-dog-winner-was-only-like-the-fourt-1796392101

It's a terrible question.

I suspect it's not the product of a native English speaker.


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## Piatkow

You may sometimes hear "dog" used as a disrespectful term for an unattractive woman.


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## Cenzontle

It's a terrible, useless question.
Apparently there is very little agreement on what comparison to make for "ugly".
I consulted the Google Ngram Viewer with this string:  "ugly as a ***", with the asterisk to be replaced by the most frequent nouns.
#1 was "ugly as a mud fence".  I'm not sure I've ever heard this before, and I don't know that a mud fence is.
Others on the list were "toad", "bear", "monkey", "satyr", "mule".  *None* of these sound familiar to me.
Of course the indefinite article means we get only *count* nouns.
If you ask for "ugly as ***", the definitive answer is "sin".


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## dojibear

Your friend does not say "He is as ugly *as *a ____". Your friend says "He *is* a ____". And of course "hero" is not an animal.

Your friend is not a native English speaker. If this is a book question, it is poorly written.


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## PaulQ

i14d14 said:


> The guy is so ugly. He is a ______.
> 1. lion
> 2. tiger
> 3. dog
> 4. hero


I remember such phrases as "Paper tigers and capitalist running dogs" or similar were quite popular in China at the time of the Cultural Revolution - The question was written by someone who had no idea whatsoever about Western culture and is translating directly from the Chinese.


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## dojibear

In American English "She is a dog." is common (but slang), meaning "She is very ugly". Perhaps this is the expression your friend means.

But it is only used for a female person, not a male.


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## bennymix

I like _ugly as a toad_ (AE).


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## Vovan

i14d14 said:


> What is the answer?


A brief peek into Google Books gave these:
_ugly as a toad _(this one makes perfect sense in the context of a well known European fairy-tale in which a toad turns into a handsome prince)
_ugly as a dead monkey
_​(There's also a rather common expression _"ugly as hell"_ which came to mind as an association to "hero", option 4.)


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## se16teddy

There was a film called _coyote ugly. 

Coyote Ugly (film) - Wikipedia
_


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## GreenWhiteBlue

se16teddy said:


> There was a film called _coyote ugly.
> _


That does not apply here, and instead refers to being so desperate to get away from someone ugly that one would gnaw off one's own limb, as a coyote might to get out of a trap.


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## Hercules Grytpype-Thynne

My first thought was "warthog", perhaps influenced by the scene in _The Princess Bride _in which Westley calls Humperdinck a "warthog-faced buffoon".  

Apes are also apparently canonically ugly, as witness the expression "like ugly on an ape" popularized by the first President Bush.


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## Trochfa

The guy is so ugly. He's a bull seal!


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## bennymix

I always thought this guy took the cake.  Mole rat.
https://assets.wired.com/photos/w_660/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/naked-molerat-inline.jpg

Family scene:
Imgur: The most awesome images on the Internet


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## Soleil_Couchant

Well, based on the options, I agree with others: dog.   Calling a woman a "dog" would imply she's really ugly.  I.e., "man she's a dog!!" as an insult. Or like "that guy's wife is a total dog!"  again meaning ugly, unattractive.  I suppose you could say that to a guy, too, but I've mostly heard it with women.

Ummm, like someone else said, yes I've heard "ugly as hell." Also "ugly as sin."  Calling someone a 'horse-face' might also imply ugliness. But yeah...weird question.


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## Lun-14

The guy is so ugly. He is a _toe man_.

I have heard that in the UK ugly people are referred to as "toe people".

Is that right?


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## heypresto

Lun-14 said:


> The guy is so ugly. He is a _toe man_.
> 
> I have heard that in the UK ugly people are referred to as "toe people".
> 
> Is that right?


I've never seen or heard this. It sounds unlikely.

Where have you heard that it's a UK expression?


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## Lun-14

heypresto said:


> Where have you heard that it's a UK expression?


One of my brother's teachers told him that.
Perhaps it's a US/Australia thing?


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## heypresto

Lun-14 said:


> Perhaps it's a US/Australia thing?


Maybe. But I doubt it.


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## Soleil_Couchant

I have not heard it in the US.


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## boozer

He is so ugly. He is a dog.

For me, the two sentences above remain unrelated. If I heard them, I would assume the second expressed some sort of a negative attitude towards the person, describing him as mean, cowardly low-life. Surely, 'He is a dog' does not come across as describing a person's appearance...


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## You little ripper!

> Perhaps it's a .../Australia thing?


Not as far as I'm aware. The expression makes no sense in this context.


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## Trochfa

Perhaps they meant the BrE word "toerag". That is often used with "ugly" or "horrible", and frequently with "little": e.g.

"You horrible little toerag!"
"The ugly little toerag!"
"He's an ugly little toerag!"

toerag - definition of toerag in English | Oxford Dictionaries


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## Vovan

Lun-14 said:


> I have heard that in the UK ugly people are referred to as "toe people".


"Toe" is used in "a toe rag", but the expression doesn't mean "ugly" per se.


> It comes from a time when men wore stockings instead of socks, and is used as an insult, to describe someone who is the lowest of the low. <...> There is a rumour that the phase has an alternative origin, namely a ‘tow rag’, which is a length of rope sailors would carry with them and use as toilet paper on long voyages (then trail it in the sea to clean it).
> 
> Read more: Fraser’s Phrases: ‘Toe Rag’ | BBC America


(Cross-posted)


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## Trochfa

You might hear someone say "He's pug-ugly."


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## lingobingo

Trochfa said:


> You might hear someone say "He's pug-ugly."



I've only ever heard plug-ugly!


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## Trochfa

That's funny, because I've never heard "plug-ugly" until now. Perhaps "pug-ugly" is a regional variant, or an adaption of "plug-ugly".

Google Ngram Viewer

A few examples:
'Mellus said, "That old redheaded _pug-ugly_ Murdock was pretty meek, considering the way we busted in on him."'
Death on the Waterfront - Robert Archer *1941
*
'The shrewd, pug-ugly face crinkled into a whimsical smile. "Well, he sure took the bait — hook, line and sinker.'
Scandal Rag - Joseph Harrington _*1942
*
"Then here come the Lassos that I haven't seen for years, Lucky and Lucy and their pug-ugly niece Ruth,....." Writers Forum *1974
*
"He's no George Clooney, it's true, but neither is he pug-ugly."
London Evening Standard *2000*_


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## Soleil_Couchant

I've heard pug-ugly. (and not "plug")


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## bennymix

Let's no forget the neologism 'fugly.'


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## PaulQ

Trochfa said:


> I've never heard "plug-ugly" until now. Perhaps "pug-ugly" is a regional variant, or an adaption of "plug-ugly".


The original was:
*Plug Ugly* 1. Originally (chiefly with capital initials): a member of a gang of ruffians in Baltimore and some other American cities (now hist.). In later use more generally: a thug, a rowdy.
*1856*   Butte Rec. (Oroville, Calif.) 29 Nov. 3/7   The..Plug Uglies..went to Philadelphia on election day..to fight off and whip the democracy from the polls.

* 2. A very ugly person *or (occasionally) animal.
*1862 *  W. W. White Let. 1 Apr. in J.M. McPherson Battle Chron. Civil War (1989) V. 120/2   Good Morning ‘Plug Ugly’.

And became, by extension and mishearing:
*pug-ugly *adj.
*1911 *  Lima (Ohio) Daily News 6 Mar. 2/5   The rag-shag, pug-ugly hoboes overrun the community.
1997   Total Film Sept. 29/2   He punched the daylights out of ET's pug ugly brud in Independence Day's defining moment.


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## Packard

He is so ugly, he is a ________

1.  Duck
2.  Owl
3.  Swan
4.  Egret

If you are a duck, the correct answer is #3 (swan); however if you are a swan, the correct answer is #1 (duck).

Of course if you are "here to see a man about a dog" you either have to go to the bathroom, or you have an appointment for which you do not want to disclose the purpose.


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## bennymix

It might be mentioned that 'dog' is close to 'pal' between males. "Hey, dog!"

It's also applied to an admired, manly man, but another.  "He's a dog!"   Pres. Clinton was called by some "The Big Dog." 

*Hillary Clinton unleashes the big dog - but will Bill help or hinder her ...*
 
Jan 2, 2016 - Whatever else, Bill _Clinton_ remains the _big dog_ of American public life.

“If you can’t run with the big dogs, then stay on the porch,” the old Southernism runs. But now the biggest dog of all is about to be let off the porch for the 2016 US presidential campaign. Starting on Monday in New Hampshire, Bill Clinton will be on the stump for his wife in the key early primary states.




VicNicSor said:


> It's most likely "dog".
> 
> DOG:
> 
> Macmillan dictionary


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## ain'ttranslationfun?

From the _Harry Potter _books: "[He looks] like a baboon's backside." From the list, though, "dog", not that it's a good question, as others have written; I agree that "dog" here is a metaphor for "ugly", because the other choices don't work, and that it's usually used for women by MCPs*. "He's a dog." can mean that a man is a "horn dog" (satyr, sex fiend) or "a despicable person". Also, humorously, "You dog, you!" when a man relates something he's done which isn't gentlemanly (usually used for a Don Juan).   

*Male Chauvinist Pig, which maybe a bit outdated.


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## bennymix

"He's a dog." can mean that a man is a "horn dog" (satyr, sex fiend) or "a despicable person".

Such 'dog' of course, might be handsome.


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## Trochfa

PaulQ said:


> And became, by extension and mishearing:
> *pug-ugly *adj.
> *1911 * Lima (Ohio) Daily News 6 Mar. 2/5 The rag-shag, pug-ugly hoboes overrun the community.



Thanks for showing the development Paul.  

Perhaps after 106 years of being in print it might be time to allow it. After all, "pug" and "ugly" would be pretty easy to come up with as an independent phrase without any direct adaption from "plug-ugly". It's the sort of stupid phrase I come up with all the time.


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## Packard

In college I recall male students refer to ugly coeds as "boy, she's a dog".  I'm pretty sure that was standard language back in the 1960s to 1970s.


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## bennymix

'coed' itself is a bit dated, my friend!


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## Cenzontle

boozer, #23


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## Trochfa

An update on the plug-ugly versus pug-ugly discussion. It looks as if 1911 wasn't the earliest recorded use of pug-ugly, which actually appeared in print only seven months after the 29th Nov 1856 usage of plug-ugly:

The _Milwaukee Daily News_, *June 1857*, described a '*pug-ugly*' as a person with a brutish, swollen face that was the result of being 'plugged', that is 'punched', by a member of the Plug Ugly gang. This leads us to look at the various explanations of how these expressions were derived. 'Pug-ugly' is straightforward. It isn't a reference to the breed of dog, ugly though they are, but to 'pug' as a shortened form of 'pugilist'. Boxers were often battered and disfigured."

'Plug-ugly' - the meaning and origin of this phrase

Whatever the actual origin, given that it is now 160 years old I think I shall continue to use it.


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## Loob

I can't believe that so much effort has been expended on this.

The original question was clearly a poor question.


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## RM1(SS)

lingobingo said:


> But what kind of animal is a hero?!


A hero ain't nothing but a sandwich.


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## Hercules Grytpype-Thynne

lingobingo said:


> What a strange question!
> 
> But what kind of animal is a hero?!


It seems that it's a kind of shrew.


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## lingobingo

As a vegetarian, I'll pass on the hero sandwich, thanks, whether or not the meat in it is shrew!


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