seam
Pronunciation Noun

seam (plural seams)

  1. (sewing) A folded-back and stitched piece of fabric; especially, the stitching that joins two or more pieces of fabric.
    • 1977, Agatha Christie, chapter 4, in An Autobiography, part II, London: Collins, →ISBN:
      Mind you, clothes were clothes in those days. […]  Frills, ruffles, flounces, lace, complicated seams and gores: not only did they sweep the ground and have to be held up in one hand elegantly as you walked along, but they had little capes or coats or feather boas.
  2. A suture.
  3. (geology) A thin stratum, especially of an economically viable material such as coal or mineral.
  4. (cricket) The stitched equatorial seam of a cricket ball; the sideways movement of a ball when it bounces on the seam.
  5. (construction) A joint formed by mating two separate sections of materials.
    Seams can be made or sealed in a variety of ways, including adhesive bonding, hot-air welding, solvent welding, using adhesive tapes, sealant, etc.
  6. A line or depression left by a cut or wound; a scar; a cicatrix.
  7. (figurative) A line of junction; a joint.
    • 1697, Joseph Addison, Essay on Virgil's Georgics
      Precepts should be so finely wrought together […] that no coarse seam may discover where they join.
Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Verb

seam (seams, present participle seaming; past and past participle seamed)

  1. To put together with a seam.
  2. To make the appearance of a seam in, as in knitting a stocking; hence, to knit with a certain stitch, like that in such knitting.
  3. To mark with a seam or line; to scar.
    • 1725, Homer; [Alexander Pope], transl., “Book 4”, in The Odyssey of Homer. […], volume V, London: Printed for Bernard Lintot, OCLC 8736646 ↗:
      Seam'd o'er with wounds which his own sabre gave.
  4. To crack open along a seam.
    • Later their lips began to parch and seam.
  5. (cricket) Of the ball, to move sideways after bouncing on the seam.
  6. (cricket) Of a bowler, to make the ball move thus.
Noun

seam (plural seams)

  1. (historical) An old English measure of grain, containing eight bushels.
  2. (historical) An old English measure of glass, containing twenty-four weys of five pounds, or 120 pounds.
    • 1952, L. F. Salzman, Building in England, p. 175.
      As white glass was 6s. the 'seam', containing 24 'weys' (pise, or pondera) of 5 lb., and 2½ lb. was reckoned sufficient to make one foot of glazing, the cost of glass would be 1½d. leaving 2½d. for labour.
Noun

seam (plural seams)

  1. (UK, dialect, obsolete) grease; tallow; lard



This text is extracted from the Wiktionary and it is available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license | Terms and conditions | Privacy policy 0.004
Offline English dictionary