adjective
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showing the least pleasant aspect; sordid
-
(esp of the inner side of a garment) showing many seams
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Etymology
Origin of seamy
1595–1605; seam + -y 1; in transferred senses alluding to the unpresentable appearance of the inside of a garment, i.e., where the seams show
Explanation
Things that are seamy have lost all morality. Your mother wouldn't approve of you going to a seamy video arcade, especially not if you went with a group of seamy people. The seamy people at that video arcade could also be called "sleazy" or “a bad crowd.” A house that’s falling down could also be seamy, and so is the bar on the corner where not even your uncle will go. If you find yourself in a seamy situation, the best thing to do is get out before you find yourself turning seamy, corrupted by the seamy folk lurking about.
Vocabulary lists containing seamy
Othello
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Talk Like Shakespeare Day, List 7
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The Big Short
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
It was all a stimulating change from opera-house productions, which often lean on 18th-century elegance instead of exploring the seamy underside and corruption of the demimonde that is at the heart of the piece.
From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 17, 2026
Working with cinematographer Robby Müller, Friedkin puts a Los Angeles on screen that is equal parts glamorous and seamy, where even the palm tree in the movie’s logo looks like a gunshot wound.
From Los Angeles Times • Aug. 18, 2023
There’s no seamy underside to these works, which are both elegant and modern, as if there is no contradiction between the two ideas.
From Washington Post • Jan. 5, 2023
"The Dry" takes this juicy setup and uses it to examine the seamy underbelly of this small farming community.
From Salon • May 19, 2021
Weaving through rush-hour traffic on Turtle's bike, Theo trailed the bus to a seamy downtown district across the railroad tracks where Crow and Otis got off.
From "The Westing Game" by Ellen Raskin
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
