Word.ws English Dictionary

like the back end of a bus

like the back end of a bus prepositional phrase: very unattractive.

Prepositional phrase

  1. (UK, colloquial, derogatory, simile) Very unattractive.
    • Not really fighting over her (puns aside). When you get a current beau and an ex, full of booze and testosterone, meeting up, their common interest isn't much of an issue in the subsequent display of machismo. I think she looks like the back end of a bus but, to them, she was a 'possession'.2001, "Richard", "A sign of our times...", demon.local http://groups.google.com/group/demon.local/browse_thread/thread/3e3e39af204c46cb/06729fc6d595ef98?lnk=st&q=%22the+back+end+of+a+bus%22&rnum=21#06...
    • Must admit, I like the *original* 911s - the original, late-1960s ones back before they fitted bulgey wheelarches and silly tea-tray rear spoilers. They look much more like delicate, precision instruments compared with the later 'sledgehammer" versions [which IMHO are about as attractive as the...2002, Tanuki the Raccoon-dog, “I drove a...”, in uk.rec.cars.modifications (Usenet)

Examples of like the back end of a bus in a sentence

  • Alicia Witt looks stunning, while the duchess of Pork looks like the back end of a bus.2004, David Platt, “DUCHESS OF YORK NUDE”, in uk.politics.misc (Usenet):
  • ‘You’ve got a face like the back end of a bus,’ he spat, his eyes raw and burning.2005, Will Hadcroft, Anne Droyd And Century Lodge:
  • As I once told him, being British, looking like the back end of a bus or weighing 30 stone, was utterly irrelevant to the posting i made2006, "sheelagh", "Bookie: Did you adopt the blind cat?", rec.pats.cats.health+behav http://groups.google.com/group/rec.pets.cats.health+beh...

Questions about like the back end of a bus

What does like the back end of a bus mean?
Like the back end of a bus means very unattractive.
How do you use like the back end of a bus in a sentence?
Alicia Witt looks stunning, while the duchess of Pork looks like the back end of a bus.
What part of speech is like the back end of a bus?
Like the back end of a bus is a prepositional phrase.

Words near like the back end of a bus in the dictionary

  1. like taking candy from a baby
  2. like talking to a brick wall
  3. like talking to a wall
  4. like terms
  5. like that
  6. like the back end of a bus
  7. like the bottom of a birdcage
  8. like the cat that got the cream
  9. like the clappers
  10. like the devil
  11. like the man said

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: like the back end of a bus (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-like the back end of a bus.ogg.

Cite this entry: “like the back end of a bus.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/like_the_back_end_of_a_bus. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.