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clammy love

clammy

Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Disagreeably moist, sticky, and cold to the touch.
  • adjective Damp and unpleasant.
  • adjective Uneasy; apprehensive.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Viscous; adhesive; soft and sticky; glutinous; tenacious.
  • Hence Cold and moist with a sticky feel.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Having the quality of being viscous or adhesive; soft and sticky; glutinous; damp and adhesive, as if covered with a cold perspiration.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Cold and damp, usually referring to hands or palms.
  • adjective medicine The quality of normal skin signs, epidermis that is neither diaphragmatic nor dry

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective unpleasantly cool and humid

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, sticky, probably from clam (from Old English, mud, clay) or from Middle Low German klam, stickiness.]

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Examples

  • There is a kind of locust, called the clammy-barked, found in the

    Among the Trees at Elmridge Ella Rodman Church

  • And the thing that you get in the airport, because the temperature's always that kind of clammy thing, so that your nipples actually bristle against your shirt.

    CNN Transcript Jun 22, 2008 2008

  • And the thing that you get in the airport, because the temperature's always that kind of clammy thing, so that your nipples actually bristle against your shirt.

    CNN Transcript Jun 20, 2008 2008

  • It was nice to shower in a tub he'd cleaned himself, instead of those truck-stop showers, which always felt kind of clammy and slimy and fungusy.

    Homebody Card, Orson Scott 1998

  • The words, the thoughts, came fully formed into his mind through a kind of clammy telepathy.

    The Day of the Dissonance Foster, Alan Dean, 1946- 1984

  • The words, the thoughts, came fully formed into his mind through a kind of clammy telepathy.

    The Day of the Dissonance Foster, Alan Dean, 1946- 1984

  • Then, with a kind of clammy thickness, repulsion and fear came down upon me like the folds of a collapsing tent.

    The Girl In A Swing Adams, Richard, 1920- 1980

  • "Secrets & Lies," is an expert at the kind of clammy pathos that epitomizes Gladys at her most trying.

    NYT > Home Page By CHARLES ISHERWOOD 2010

  • I feel bad, "Boruc has said, holding his head over the toaster to create a" clammy "feeling and adopting a sickly facial expression.

    Football transfer rumours: Glen Johnson to Juventus? Barney Ronay 2010

  • "Mercy! they felt so kind of clammy they made me jump.

    In the Closed Room Frances Hodgson Burnett 1886

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