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unseemly

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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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.

Pronunciation

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Adjective

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unseemly (comparative unseemlier, superlative unseemliest)

  1. Inconsistent with established standards of good form or taste.
    Synonyms: unbecoming, indecorous
    Antonym: seemly
    He was drunk and made some very unseemly comments.
    • 1678, John Bunyan, The Pilgrim’s Progress from This World, to That which is to Come: […], London: […] Nath[aniel] Ponder […], →OCLC:
      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.
    • 1843 December 19, Charles Dickens, “Stave Four. The Last of the Spirits.”, in A Christmas Carol. […], London: Chapman & Hall, […], →OCLC, page 129:
      Secrets that few would like to scrutinise were bred and hidden in mountains of unseemly rags, masses of corrupted fat, and sepulchres of bones.
    • 1850, Nathaniel Hawthorne, chapter 10, in The Scarlet Letter, a Romance, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor, Reed, and Fields, →OCLC, page 164:
      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.
    • 1874, Thomas Hardy, chapter XXIII, in Far from the Madding Crowd. […], volume II, London: Smith, Elder & Co., […], →OCLC, page 287:
      “We’d better stand quiet—he’ll go in again directly. He would think it unseemly o’ us to be loitering here.”
    • 1958, Anthony Burgess, The Enemy in the Blanket (The Malayan Trilogy), London: Heinemann, page 192:
      Many men, women and children, clothed in bright raiment for the Sabbath, saw with a faint flicker of interest and surprise a very white man on a trishaw, and the driver pedalling with unseemly haste.
    • 2008, BioWare, Mass Effect (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →ISBN, →OCLC, PC, scene: Asari Codex entry:
      An all female race, the asari reproduce through a form of parthenogenesis. Each asari can attune her nervous system to that of another individual of any gender, and of any species, to reproduce. This capability has led to unseemly and inaccurate rumors about asari promiscuity.
    • 2014 October 21, Oliver Brown, “Oscar Pistorius jailed for five years – sport afforded no protection against his tragic fallibilities: Bladerunner's punishment for killing Reeva Steenkamp is but a frippery when set against the burden that her bereft parents, June and Barry, must carry [print version: No room for sentimentality in this tragedy, 13 September 2014, p. S22]”, in The Daily Telegraph (Sport)‎[1]:
      [I]n the 575 days since [Oscar] Pistorius shot dead his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, there has been an unseemly scramble to construct revisionist histories, to identify evidence beneath that placid exterior of a pugnacious, hair-trigger personality.
    • 2025 November 5, Zoe Williams, quoting Famke Janssen, “‘I thought ‘Bond girl’ was such a demeaning term’: Famke Janssen on acting, ambition and Woody Allen”, in The Guardian‎[2], →ISSN:
      She stays off social media because she finds it a bit unseemly: “I certainly was not going to do what a lot of the rest of the world and a lot of women seem to be doing, which is photographing themselves half naked on Instagram, screaming for attention. It’s just not who I am.”
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Translations

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See also

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Adverb

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unseemly (comparative more unseemly, superlative most unseemly)

  1. In an unseemly manner.
    Synonyms: immorally, improperly, indecently; see also Thesaurus:unvirtuously
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