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unseemly

[uhn-seem-lee]

adjective

not seemly; not in keeping with established standards of taste or proper form; unbecoming or indecorous in appearance, speech, conduct, etc.: an unseemly act; unseemly behavior.

inappropriate for time or place: an unseemly hour.

adverb

in an unseemly manner.

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Unseemly is always a great word to know.

So is zedonk. Does it mean:

a gadget; dingus; thingumbob.

the offspring of a zebra and a donkey.

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Origin:
1250–1300; Middle English; see un-¹, seemly

Related forms

un·seem·li·ness, noun

Synonyms
1. unbefitting, inappropriate. See improper.

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Link To unseemly

Example Sentences

The last three weeks of the campaign were particularly unseemly.

It's all a bit unseemly and provides incentives of a non-scholarly nature.

His search for political opportunity took him into unseemly alliances with military leaders.

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The last three weeks of the campaign were particularly unseemly.

It's all a bit unseemly and provides incentives of a non-scholarly nature.

His search for political opportunity took him into unseemly alliances with military leaders.

As such it is unseemly for the untrained to claim that certain sciences are less so than others.

Several in the national security community considered her torrid online questioning to be an unseemly form of soliciting secrets.

Images of being minced into an unseemly pulp come to mind.

Only a left wing radical agenda could account for such unseemly behavior.

Now, those same steel firms are returning to profitability with unseemly haste.

Watching at all was an act so unseemly as to be inconceivable among gentlemen in their day.

We trust that this will be deemed an ample apology for the publication of unseemly and irrelevant matter.

Hangings often took place in public, frequently leading to riots and other unseemly behaviour among spectators.

Even respected brands can suddenly find themselves doing unseemly things.

Investigators are pursuing a criminal inquiry involving macabre dealings in mortuaries and unseemly sales of flesh and bone.

What divides opposition politicians often overshadows the common ground they share, occasionally with unseemly consequences.

The dear friend's need to know the cause of death is unseemly.

Overt hatred was once rather unseemly in the literary world.

Years of muffled resentment finally exploding into an unseemly public affairFelix.

Florence was simply a troublesome daughter who took an unseemly interest in hospitals and refused to marry.

The enthusiasm with which the park service and the scientific community view this event strikes me as unseemly.

Failure to deliver it would look unseemly at a time when politicians are asking voters to scrimp.

If unseemly displays of wealth are offensive in a recession, their trappings still glitter and goad.

They maintain that it is unseemly to create human life in any form only to destroy.

They required attendance at church but punished anyone who got there with unseemly haste or on too showy a horse.

As the small city's fortune's have grown, cultural mores that once made ostentatious spending unseemly have shifted.

Now, when cases of slavery arise in the news, they are considered perverse and unseemly.

Back home the flooding has led to loud calls to cancel his unseemly jet-setting.

The aggressive pursuit of new business and old bills was considered unseemly.

Unseemly their conduct may be, but it's guaranteed to get a laugh-in fact, several of them.

Like athlete's foot, it's not a sin, but it is unseemly.

Shearer has also shared footage of anchors asking unseemly questions to guests.

But the rest of the society must not allow itself even a hint of unseemly conduct.

One recognizes a real actress even if the bows, considering the movie that contains them, are unseemly.

And there also be those with an unseemly lust for the mauling of another's flesh.

Dog owners are familiar with the unseemly lapping noises that ensue when their thirsty pet meets a bowl of water.

It was as if estranged relatives suddenly realized that their bad blood was unseemly and petty in the face of tragedy.

Maybe he will, but it's unseemly to watch and doesn't bode well.

COLLAPSE

Collins

World English Dictionary

unseemly (ʌnˈsiːmlɪ)

—*adj*
1.	not in good style or taste; unbecoming
2.	obsolete unattractive

—*adv*
3.	rare in an unseemly manner

un'seemliness

—n

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
Cite This Source

Etymonline

Word Origin & History

unseemly

early 14c., "unfitting, indecent," from un- (1) "not" + seemly. Cf. O.N. usoemiligr.

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Related Words

disorder indecorous sir-reverence

sir-reverence spectacle

Matching Quote

"It breedeth no small offence and scandal to see and consider upon the one part the curiosity and cost bestowed by all sorts of men upon their private houses; and on the other part the unclean and negligent order and spare keeping of the houses of prayer by permitting open decays and ruins of coverings of walls and windows, and by appointing unmeet and unseemly tables with foul cloths for the communion of the sacrament."

-Elizabeth I

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unseemly

un·seem·ly