unseemly

CEFRC1

/əˈnsimli/

adjective

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    adjective

    Not suitable, proper, or socially acceptable in a situation.

  2. 02

    adjective

    Extra detail

    In an unseemly manner.

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.

At a glance

Sits at C1 on the CEFR scale

Senses
3
Parts of speech
1
Citations
5
Synonyms
5

Deep Dive

adjective

Extra meaning

  1. Inconsistent with established standards of good form or taste.

More examples

In context

  • He was drunk and made some very unseemly comments.

  • Secrets that few would like to scrutinise were bred and hidden in mountains of unseemly rags, masses of corrupted fat, and sepulchres of bones.

  • 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.

Synonyms

Antonyms

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

Laughing loudly at a funeral is considered highly blank behavior by most people.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

adjective

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.