Home UK English stick out like a sore thumb

Meaning of stick out like a sore thumb in English:

stick out like a sore thumb

phrase

(also stand out like a sore thumb)

  • Be very obviously different from the surrounding people or things.

    ‘you stick out like a sore thumb in that ghastly uniform’
    • ‘The café was busy and loud, if people took the time to notice, we stood out like a sore thumb.’
    • ‘The centre has stuck out like a sore thumb for many, many years and at last something is being done.’
    • ‘The Times said that the theft was clearly the work of ‘a suspect, a scientist [who] stuck out like a sore thumb.’’
    • ‘We stuck out like a sore thumb: all pale skin and wearing black.’
    • ‘I stuck out like a sore thumb because I was brought up to be polite and people are not quite sincere there.’
    • ‘Is it going to be really stuck out like a sore thumb or is it going to blend in with the rolling hills and the space in that area?’
    • ‘It will come as a relief to residents of Old Broadway, all of whom were fiercely opposed to something that would have stuck out like a sore thumb.’
    • ‘I stood out like a sore thumb in my lisle knee-socks and street clothes.’
    • ‘The structure is the most terrible garish monstrosity - it sticks out like a sore thumb in the green belt.’
    • ‘From a distance the house sticks out like a sore thumb across the countryside.’