A portmanteau is a large suitcase. The word comes from French porter carry and manteau mantle, or cloak â so it's what you carry your clothes in. Or, a portmanteau is a word made by combining two other words. You might remember portmanteau from Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking Glass, where Humpty Dumpty explains to Alice the portmanteau word, in which two meanings are packed up into one word. So, according to Humpty Dumpty, slithy means lithe and slimy, and mimsy is flimsy and miserable.
to be as ugly as a mud fence definition, to be as ugly as a mud fence meaning | English dictionary. Search also in: Web News Encyclopedia Images. ugly. adj , -lier, -liest. 1 of unpleasant or unsightly appearance. 2 repulsive, objectionable, or displeasing in any way. war is ugly. 3 ominous or menacing.
Back then, it meant a person in an abject condition - often poor or criminal (that was the metaphorical mud) - and stuck, unwilling to change. The notion of poverty and crime went away and it came to mean set in one's ways, unwilling to change, presumably even when offered an opportunity for betterment. That makes sense, as one who won't come out & play but stays home and does his own thing is both a stick in the mud and a party-pooper.