seemly

English

Etymology

Middle English semely.

Adjective

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

• unseemly

Derived terms

• seemliness

Translations

appropriate

• Armenian: պատշաճ (hy) (patšač̣)

• Swedish: passande (sv)

Adverb

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 [...].