unseemly
unseemly adjective: inconsistent with established standards of good form or taste.
Adjective
unseemly (comparative unseemlier, superlative unseemliest)
- Inconsistent with established standards of good form or taste.
- He was drunk and made some very unseemly comments.
- 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
- Synonyms:
- unbecoming, indecorous
- Antonyms:
- seemly
Adverb
unseemly (comparative more unseemly, superlative most unseemly)
- In an unseemly manner.
- […] [Charitie] Doeth not behaue it selfe vnseemly, seeketh not her owne, is not easily prouoked, thinketh no euill,1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 1 Corinthians 13:5
- Synonyms:
- immorally, improperly, indecently, illicitly, immodestly, incontinently, reprehensibly, unchastely, unvirtuously, wickedly
unseemly meaning in Hindi, Urdu, Malayalam and Kannada
unseemly in Hindi
- inconsistent with standards, etc.
- अशोभनीय aśobhnīya, अनुचित anucit
unseemly in Urdu
- کڈھب, ناشائستہ
unseemly in Malayalam
- unbecoming, indecordous, improper
- ഭംഗികേടായ, അയോഗ്യമായ, അനുചിതമായ, നിർമ്മര്യാദമായ, ഉചിതമല്ലാത്ത, ഔചിത്യമില്ലാത്ത
unseemly in Kannada
- ಯುಕ್ತವಲ್ಲದ, ತಕ್ಕುದಲ್ಲದ, ಅನುಚಿತ, ಅಯೋಗ್ಯ, ತರವಲ್ಲದ, ತಪ್ಪಾದ
Examples of unseemly in a sentence
- 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...
- 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:
- This capability has led to unseemly and inaccurate rumors about asari promiscuity.2008, BioWare, Mass Effect (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →ISBN, →OCLC, PC, scene: Asari Codex entry:
Synonyms of unseemly
- unbecoming
- indecorous
- immorally
- improperly
- indecently
- illicitly
- immodestly
- incontinently
- reprehensibly
- unchastely
4 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Antonyms
Forms of unseemly
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | unseemlier |
| superlative | unseemliest |
| alternative form | unsemely |
| Adverb | |
| comparative | more unseemly |
| superlative | most unseemly |
Origin of unseemly
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.
Words formed from unseemly
Questions about unseemly
- What does unseemly mean?
- Unseemly means inconsistent with established standards of good form or taste.
- What is unseemly in Hindi?
- Unseemly in Hindi is अशोभनीय (aśobhnīya), अनुचित (anucit). See Unseemly meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use unseemly in a sentence?
- Secrets that few would like to scrutinise were bred and hidden in mountains of unseemly rags, masses of corrupted fat, and sepulchres of bones.
- What part of speech is unseemly?
- Unseemly can be an adjective or an adverb.
Words near unseemly in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: unseemly (page history and authors); unseemly (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); unseemly (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); unseemly (Kannada Wiktionary) (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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-unseemly.ogg.
Cite this entry: “unseemly.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/unseemly. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.