semese
/sɪˈmiːs/
semese adjective: half-eaten.
Adjective
semese (not comparable)
- Half-eaten.
- “Ha, ha, ha!” said Bruce. “No; they’re sons of gyps and that kind of thing, who feed on the semese fragments of the high table.”1859, Frederic William Farrar, “chapter VII: The Scorn of Scorn”, in Julian Home: A Tale of College Life, published 1866, page 89
- But what was my indignation, vexation and shame when I discovered them greedily engaged in ravenously devouring the semese fragments of a barbaric repast.1903 June 6, Dean Farrar as Headmaster, published in The Living Age, 7th series, volume XIX (from the beginning, volume CCXXXVII), number 3074
Noun
semese (plural semese)
- A member of the warrior caste of the Elema of Papua New Guinea.
- During this period they meet the semese or fighting men of the tribe, “from whom they receive every incentive to become warriors.” Finally there are certain endurance tests that each heapu must pass before he is considered eligible to become a semese. “Of these the most important tests are, chewing...2009, Arthur James Todd, The Primitive Family as an Educational Agency, page 208
Forms of semese
| plural | semese |
|---|
Origin of semese
From the Latin sēmēsus; from sēm- (“half-”) + ēsus (“eaten”), the perfect passive participle of edō (“to eat”).
Questions about semese
- What does semese mean?
- Semese means half-eaten.
- What part of speech is semese?
- Semese can be an adjective or a noun.
- How do you pronounce semese?
- Semese is pronounced /sɪˈmiːs/ (UK).
Words near semese in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: semese (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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