▪ I. † ˈseamy, a.1 Obs. rare—1.
In 6 seymy.
[f. seam n.3 + -y.]
Greasy.
| a 1529 Skelton Agst. Garnesche iii. 169 Thou gresly gargone glaymy, Thou swety slouen seymy. |
▪ II. seamy, a.2
(ˈsiːmɪ)
[f. seam n.1 + -y.]
1. Having a seam or suture; characterized by seams. seamy side, lit. the under side of a garment, etc. on which the rough edges of the seams are visible; fig. [after Shakes.] the worst, most degraded or the roughest side (of life, character, etc.).
| 1604 Shakes. Oth. iv. ii. 146 Some such Squire he was That turn'd your wit, the seamy-side without, And made you to suspect me with the Moore. 1837 Mrs. Caroline Norton Let. 4 Nov. in Smiles Publisher & Friends (1891) II. 415, I begin to think it would be pleasanter to follow a marching regiment than to see the seamy side of this intellectual trade. 1859 Sat. Rev. 2 Apr. 403/1 He appreciated to a considerable extent, what we may perhaps venture to call the seamy side of human affairs. 1865 Carlyle Fredk. Gt. x. ii. III. 223 The splendid and the sordid, the seamy side and the smooth, of Life at Cirey. 1882 L. Stephen Swift viii. 185 The righteous hatred of brutality and oppression which is but the seamy side of a generous sympathy. 1899 H. A. Dobson Paladin of Philanthropy vi. 146 The knowledge of the seamy side of letters. |
2. Of the nature of or resembling a seam or seams; marked with a seam.
| 1776 Mickle tr. Camoens' Lusiad iv. 75 His crimson seamy scars reveal The sure-aim'd vengeance of the Lusian steel. 1786 Burns Addr. to Edinb. v, Like some bold Vet'ran..mark'd with many a seamy scar. 1857 Geo. Eliot Scenes Clerical Life, Amos Barton ii, A one-eyed woman, with a scarred and seamy face. 1874 S. Lanier Corn 127 To where..Yon old deserted Georgian hill Bares to the sun his piteous aged crest And seamy breast. |
| Comb. 1840 Carlyle Heroes v. (1841) 289 The rough seamy-faced, rawboned College Servitor. |
Hence ˈseaminess.
| 1875 Besant & Rice With Harp & Crown ix, A gleam of light upon his face, which brought out the more forcibly the seaminess with which his passions were furrowing it. 1898 G. Wyndham Poems of Shaks. Introd. 60 Jonson's..virulence..spared neither the seaminess of an opposite's apparel nor the defects in his personal appearance. |