ugly cry

ugly cry (third-person singular simple present ugly cries, present participle ugly crying, simple past and past participle ugly cried)

1. (slang, intransitive) To weep to the extent that one's face contorts.
   • 2019, M. L. Aiken, Lucky Beginnings: Blue Moon Valley: The story of Tom and Maggie:

     […] and then she grabbed onto his shirt and cried, he held her and tried to calm her, but knew that she just needed to ugly cry, for a while.

   • 2019, Melissa Maimone, The Radiant Midnight, page 60:

     And if I'm in line at the grocery store, I don't want to ugly cry. So in situations like that, I avoid my friends. I will try to breeze past them in the frozen food aisle.

• begrutten