unˈseam, v.
[un-2 4.]
trans. To undo the seam or seams of (a garment, etc.). Also fig., to rip up.
| 1592 Greene Groat's W. Wit (1617) 28 In a thread-bare cloake,..his hose vnseamed. 1605 Shakes. Macb. i. ii. 22 Till he vnseam'd him from the Naue to th' Chops, And fix'd his Head vpon our Battlements. 1608 Beaum. & Fl. Four Plays in One i. iii, Nor a vein runs here From head to foot, but Sophocles would unseame, and..shoot his scornfull blood Into their eyes. 1631 in Verney Mem. (1907) I. 131 Our barke..had her bottome strucken out and was unseamed. 1812 Byron Ch. Har. i. lxxvii, One gallant steed is stretch'd a mangled corse; Another, hideous sight! unseam'd appears. 1824 in Spirit Pub. Jrnls. (1825) 194 Giving Mr. Trotter a thump on the eye, and unseaming his shirt from top to bottom! 1848 T. Aird Chr. Bride i. xiii, The monster's..tusks backward glance To gather fury for his onset dread, To unseam her lovely limb. |