adjective
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showing the least pleasant aspect; sordid
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(esp of the inner side of a garment) showing many seams
Other Word 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.
Coming of age in this seamy milieu has given him a cynical worldview and a preternatural calm.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 14, 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
"The Dry" takes this juicy setup and uses it to examine the seamy underbelly of this small farming community.
From Salon • May 19, 2021
Valray’s distinctive style is marked by off-center compositions and elliptical storytelling as well as a near-documentary obsession with the seamy side of Mediterranean ports like his hometown, Toulon.
From New York Times • Mar. 10, 2021
And though it would certainly add color to my story to present a descent into a seamy underworld, I can’t fail to mention that the North Beach Strip is only a few blocks long.
From "Middlesex: A Novel" by Jeffrey Eugenides
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.
