seemly

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Contents

English [edit]

Etymology [edit]

Middle English semely.

Adjective [edit]

seemly (comparative seemlier, superlative seemliest)

  1. (of behavior) Appropriate; suited to the occasion or purpose; becoming.
    His behavior was seemly, as befits a gentleman.
    • Shakespeare
      I am a woman, lacking wit / To make a seemly answer to such persons.
    • Hooker
      Suspense of judgment and exercise of charity were safer and seemlier for Christian men than the hot pursuit of these controversies.

Antonyms [edit]

Derived terms [edit]

Translations [edit]

Adverb [edit]

seemly (comparative more seemly, superlative most seemly)

  1. Appropriately, fittingly.
    • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, II.i:
      The great earthes wombe they open to the sky, / And with sad Cypresse seemely it embraue [...].