clammy
Americanadjective
-
covered with a cold, sticky moisture; cold and damp.
clammy hands.
-
sickly; morbid.
She had a clammy feeling that something was wrong at home.
adjective
-
unpleasantly sticky; moist
clammy hands
-
(of the weather, atmosphere, etc) close; humid
Other Word Forms
- clammily adverb
- clamminess noun
Etymology
Origin of clammy
1350–1400; Middle English, equivalent to Middle English clam sticky, cold and damp + -y -y 1
Explanation
Clammy means unpleasantly cool and slimy to the touch. It has nothing to do with those tasty little sea creatures, but they too are pretty slimy. Nine times out of ten the thing described as clammy is a hand or forehead, usually of someone who's pretty sick or just physically unpleasant. When Dickens' David Copperfield shakes the hand of the creepy Uriah Heep he exclaims, "But oh, what a clammy hand his was! As ghostly to the touch as to the sight!" Clammy can also refer to the air or atmosphere of a place, if it's particularly damp.
Vocabulary lists containing clammy
The Cay
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One Crazy Summer
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And Then There Were None
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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.
“In the ‘morning’ the air is thick; it hangs in a clammy, damp mass that you can all but grasp with your hands.
From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 7, 2025
This evolutionary gift adds a clammy disquiet to the eye-jacked livestock, which never rests and is constantly evaluating its captors and fellow captives.
From Salon • Sep. 18, 2025
According to the CDC, signs of heat exhaustion include heavy sweating; cold, pale and clammy skin; a fast, weak heart pulse; nausea or vomiting; muscle cramps; tiredness or weakness; dizziness; headache; and passing out.
From Los Angeles Times • Sep. 4, 2024
Sweating ceases as blood flow to the skin stops, leaving it cold and clammy.
From BBC • Jun. 19, 2024
Her palm was warm and clammy, but I didn’t mind at all.
From "I Can Make This Promise" by Christine Day
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.
