ugly customer

American  

noun

1. a hostile or dangerous person.

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ugly customer Idioms  

1. An ill-natured or vicious individual, as in Watch out for Charlie when he's drinking; he can be an ugly customer. This phrase uses ugly in the sense of “mean” or “dangerous.” [c. 1800]

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Etymology

Origin of ugly customer

First recorded in 1805–15

Example Sentences

With his friends, they say Dick Turpin can be as gentle as a lamb; with his foes, especially with a limb of the law like yourself, he's been found but an ugly customer.

From Rookwood by Ainsworth, William Harrison

“Thou’dst best not get across with Dick o’ Dover; he’s an ugly customer when he’s in the mind.”

From All's Well Alice's Victory by Lewin, M.

But the steward was obliged to attend to the ugly customer opposite him at the table, and he made no reply—a piece of rudeness, however, which he regretted as an absolute necessity.

From Freaks of Fortune or, Half Round the World by Optic, Oliver

For Pete was big-boned and strong, and promised to be an ugly customer in a battle.

From The Vast Abyss The Story of Tom Blount, his Uncles and his Cousin Sam by Fenn, George Manville

“She will prove an ugly customer to deal with, depend on it.”

From Fred Markham in Russia The Boy Travellers in the Land of the Czar by Landells, R. T.