Definitions

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

  • adjective Sordid; base.
  • adjective Having, marked with, or showing a seam.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Having a seam or seams; containing or showing seams.

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

  • adjective Having a seam; containing seams, or showing them.

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

  • adjective Sordid, squalid or corrupt.
  • adjective Having or showing a seam.

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

  • adjective showing a seam
  • adjective morally degraded

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

seam +‎ -y

Support

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Examples

  • 2 Apr. 403/1 He appreciated to a considerable extent, what we may perhaps venture to call the seamy side of human affairs.

    languagehat.com: SEAMY 2004

  • Shakespeare's use of "seamy" in this passage of Othello is also a pun -- appearance seeming and reality is a major theme of the play.

    languagehat.com: SEAMY 2004

  • Well, I never knew about "seamy" either, and, as someone who has sewn a lot, found this fascinating.

    languagehat.com: SEAMY 2004

  • In the course of conversation my wife happened to use the word "seamy," and it suddenly occurred to me to wonder why the word means what it does.

    languagehat.com: SEAMY 2004

  • SIMPSON: Well, a lot of people -- I mean, you're writing a book, basically, about the kind of seamy side of politics, the dark underbelly, and so you ask a lot of questions about things that people don't want to be seen talking about.

    Dirty Little Secrets: The Persistance of Corruption in American Politics 1996

  • "Why the long-running fascination with this tale, a kind of seamy modern gothic?" asks

    GreenCine Daily 2009

  • Dowd is calling the whole thing "seamy," and whenever someone brings up Bill Ayers, Rich sees a

    The Daily Gut 2008

  • Dowd is calling the whole thing "seamy," and whenever someone brings up Bill Ayers, Rich sees a

    The Daily Gut 2008

  • Dowd is calling the whole thing "seamy," and whenever someone brings up Bill Ayers, Rich sees a

    The Daily Gut 2008

  • Dowd is calling the whole thing "seamy," and whenever someone brings up Bill Ayers, Rich sees a

    The Daily Gut 2008

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