Unseemly Meaning
/əˈnsimli/Definition, CEFR level C1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
Listen pronunciation
Definition
adjInconsistent with established standards of good form or taste.
advIn an unseemly manner.
Sentence Examples
My grandmother thinks it's unseemly for me to be dating my history professor.
The sorceress turned Tom into a bear as punishment for his unseemly behavior.
CEFR Practice Quiz
Laughing loudly at a funeral is considered highly ____ behavior by most people.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
It was considered ____ for a person in his position to behave in such a rude manner during the meeting today.
Word Origin & History
From Middle English unsemli, probably a partial calque of Old Norse úsǽmiligr (“unseemly”); equivalent to un- + seemly. Cognate with Icelandic ósæmileg (“offensive”), Norwegian usømmelig (“unseemly”), Danish usømmelig (“unseemly”), German unziemlich.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"Yet this I can say, I was very wary of giving them occasion, by any unseemly action, to make them averse to going on pilgrimage."
— 1678, John Bunyan, The Pilgrim’s Progress from This World, to That which is to Come: […], London: […] Nath[aniel] Ponder […], →OCLC:
"Secrets that few would like to scrutinise were bred and hidden in mountains of unseemly rags, masses of corrupted fat, and sepulchres of bones."
— 1843 December 19, Charles Dickens, “Stave Four. The Last of the Spirits.”, in A Christmas Carol. […], London: Chapman & Hall, […], →OCLC, page 129:
"The young clergyman, after a few hours of privacy, was sensible that the disorder of his nerves had hurried him into an unseemly outbreak of temper, which there had been nothing in the physician's words to excuse or palliate."
— 1850, Nathaniel Hawthorne, chapter 10, in The Scarlet Letter, a Romance, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor, Reed, and Fields, →OCLC, page 164:
"“We’d better stand quiet—he’ll go in again directly. He would think it unseemly o’ us to be loitering here.”"
— 1874, Thomas Hardy, chapter XXIII, in Far from the Madding Crowd. […], volume II, London: Smith, Elder & Co., […], →OCLC, page 287:
"Many men, women and children, clothed in bright raiment for the Sabbath, saw with a faint flicker of interest and surprise a very white man on a trishaw, and the driver pedalling with unseemly haste."
— 1958, Anthony Burgess, The Enemy in the Blanket (The Malayan Trilogy), London: Heinemann, page 192:
Explore More C1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
Laughing loudly at a funeral is considered highly ____ behavior by most people.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
It was considered ____ for a person in his position to behave in such a rude manner during the meeting today.