Definition of "homely"

An interesting illustration of this is the way in which the English flower names which were in use till very recently are being ousted by Greek ones, snapdragon becoming antirrhinum, forget-me-not becoming myosotis, etc. It is hard to see any practical reason for this change of fashion: it is probably due to an instinctive turning-away from the more homely word and a vague feeling that the Greek word is scientific.

1946, George Orwell, Politics and the English Language

Mowgli: "Oh, don't worry Chota, it may not be homely, but I can warm it up."

2014 January 5, “Mowgli's Cub”, in The Jungle Book

There is none so homely but loves a looking-glass.

1692–1717, Robert South, Twelve Sermons Preached upon Several Occasions, 6th edition, volumes (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: […] J[ames] Bettenham, for Jonah Bowyer, […], published 1727

"I can't send a young, pretty girl, or for that matter even a homely one if you'd have her, on a job like this without telling her what to expect."

1932, Delos W. Lovelace, King Kong, published 1965, page 6

You see, she sees herself as a starlet; I see her as a sturdy, healthy but decidedly homely kid.

1958, Vladimir Nabokov, chapter 15, in Lolita

With all these men I was right homely, and communed with them long and oft.

1563, John Foxe, Foxe's Book of Martyrs, Chapter on William Thorpe

Now Strephon daily entertains His Chloe in the homeliest strains.

1731, Alexander Pope, Strephon and Chloe, Lines 211-212

There is no simple way to define precisely a complex arrangement of parts, however homely the object may appear to be.

2001, Sydney I. Landau, Dictionaries: The Art and Craft of Lexicography, Cambridge University Press, page 167