Word.ws English Dictionary

unbeseem

Syllables: un·be·seem/ʌnbɪˈsiːm/US/ʌnbəˈsiːm/

unbeseem verb: to be unseemly or unsuitable for.

Verb

unbeseem (third-person singular simple present unbeseems, present participle unbeseeming, simple past and past participle unbeseemed)

  1. (obsolete, transitive) To be unseemly or unsuitable for.
    • Law Rationall therefore, which men commonly vſe to call the Law of Nature, meaning thereby the Law which humane Nature knoweth it ſelfe in reaſon vniuerſally bound vnto, which alſo for that cauſe may be termed moſt fitly the law of Reaſon: this Law, I ſay, comprehendeth al thoſe things which men by...1594, Richard Hooker, “The First Booke. Concerning Lawes, and Their Severall Kindes in Generall.”, in Of the Lavvs of Ecclesiasticall Politie. Eyght Bookes, London: Printed at London by Iohn Windet...
    • [I]n all other things they are wiſe, ſtaid, diſcreet, and doe nothing unbeſeeming their dignity, perſon, or place, this fooliſh, ridiculous, and childiſh feare excepted; […]1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], “Symptomes or Signes in the Minde”, in The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for...

Examples of unbeseem in a sentence

  • Gregory Nazianzen a Father of the Church, thought it not unbeſeeming the ſanctity of his perſson to write a Tragedy, which he entitl'd, Chriſt ſuffering.1671, John Milton, “Samson Agonistes, a Dramatic Poem. Of that Sort of Dramatic Poem which is Call’d Tragedy.”, in Paradise Regain’d. A...
  • We have already described him as a tall handsome boy, nor had his manhood "unbeseemed the promise of his spring."1843, Lord William [Pitt] Lennox, “Lady Atherley in London”, in Compton Audley. … In Three Volumes, 2nd edition, volume II, London: Richard...
  • But, at all events, it is not to be denied that it is a vice which greatly smacks of lying, and lying is a vice which ever unbeseems a well-descended mind, whatever pretext it assumes.1875, Michel de Montaigne, W[illiam] Hazlitt, “To M. de Foix, one of the King’s Privy Council, and Ambassador from his Majesty to the...

Antonyms of unbeseem

Forms of unbeseem

third-person singular presentunbeseems
present participleunbeseeming
past participleunbeseemed
pastunbeseemed

Origin of unbeseem

From un- + beseem.

Words formed from unbeseem

Questions about unbeseem

What does unbeseem mean?
Unbeseem means to be unseemly or unsuitable for.
How do you use unbeseem in a sentence?
Gregory Nazianzen a Father of the Church, thought it not unbeſeeming the ſanctity of his perſson to write a Tragedy, which he entitl'd, Chriſt ſuffering.
What part of speech is unbeseem?
Unbeseem is a verb.
How do you pronounce unbeseem?
Unbeseem is pronounced /ʌnbɪˈsiːm/ (UK).
What is the past tense of unbeseem?
The past tense of unbeseem is unbeseemed.

Words near unbeseem in the dictionary

  1. unberthings
  2. unberths
  3. unberufen
  4. unbeseeched
  5. unbeseeching
  6. unbeseem
  7. unbeseemed
  8. unbeseeming
  9. unbeseemingly
  10. unbeseemingness
  11. unbeseemly

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: unbeseem (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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