unseemly

Valid in Scrabble

Scrabble points
13
Words With Friends
16
Letters
8

Definition of unseemly

2 senses · 2 parts of speech · etymology included

adj

  1. Inconsistent with established standards of good form or taste.
    “He was drunk and made some very unseemly comments.”
    “Yet this I can say, I was very wary of giving them occasion, by any unseemly action, to make them averse to going on pilgrimage.”
    “Secrets that few would like to scrutinise were bred and hidden in mountains of unseemly rags, masses of corrupted fat, and sepulchres of bones.”
    “The young clergyman, after a few hours of privacy, was sensible that the disorder of his nerves had hurried him into an unseemly outbreak of temper, which there had been nothing in the physician's words to excuse or palliate.”
    ““We’d better stand quiet—he’ll go in again directly. He would think it unseemly o’ us to be loitering here.””
See all 2 definitions

adj

  1. Inconsistent with established standards of good form or taste.
    “He was drunk and made some very unseemly comments.”
    “Yet this I can say, I was very wary of giving them occasion, by any unseemly action, to make them averse to going on pilgrimage.”
    “Secrets that few would like to scrutinise were bred and hidden in mountains of unseemly rags, masses of corrupted fat, and sepulchres of bones.”
    “The young clergyman, after a few hours of privacy, was sensible that the disorder of his nerves had hurried him into an unseemly outbreak of temper, which there had been nothing in the physician's words to excuse or palliate.”
    ““We’d better stand quiet—he’ll go in again directly. He would think it unseemly o’ us to be loitering here.””

adv

  1. In an unseemly manner.
    “[…] [Charitie] Doeth not behaue it selfe vnseemly, seeketh not her owne, is not easily prouoked, thinketh no euill,”

Definitions from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA.

Etymology

From Middle English unsemli, probably a partial calque of Old Norse úsǽmiligr (“unseemly”); equivalent to un- + seemly. Cognate with Icelandic ósæmileg (“offensive”), Norwegian usømmelig (“unseemly”), Danish usømmelig (“unseemly”), German unziemlich.

Anagrams of unseemly

1 play · some not in Scrabble

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