Thesaurus.com
Dictionary.com
Definitions

seamy

[see-mee] / ˈsi mi /


Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

See Examples For:

Coming of age in this seamy milieu has given him a cynical worldview and a preternatural calm.

From The Wall Street Journal Apr. 14, 2026

Working with cinematographer Robby Müller, Friedkin puts a Los Angeles on screen that is equal parts glamorous and seamy, where even the palm tree in the movie’s logo looks like a gunshot wound.

From Los Angeles Times Aug. 18, 2023

There’s no seamy underside to these works, which are both elegant and modern, as if there is no contradiction between the two ideas.

From Washington Post Jan. 5, 2023

The book offers a powerful glimpse into the seamy side of 1970s rock 'n' roll, a time capsule-like rendering of a bygone age.

From Salon May 7, 2022

Weaving through rush-hour traffic on Turtle's bike, Theo trailed the bus to a seamy downtown district across the railroad tracks where Crow and Otis got off.

From "The Westing Game" by Ellen Raskin

A former private detective, Hammett grounded his narrative in a corrupt Montana mining town, replacing the cozy murders of traditional whodunits with a seamier view of vice.

From The Wall Street Journal Jun. 19, 2026

“Hightown” captures a seamier side of life in this vacation paradise.

From Washington Post Jun. 16, 2020

Afterward, Day seemed uneasy at having exposed so much and ill at ease on the publicity trail; she was snarky to Barbara Walters for pressing her on some of the seamier details in the book.

From Los Angeles Times May 13, 2019

One night, it became the obsession of one of the guest lecturers, the Kenyan writer Binyavanga Wainaina, to bring Adichie to one of Lagos’s seamier nightspots.

From New York Times Oct. 16, 2017

My trips were limited, directed, and avoided the seamier side.

From The Huddlers by William Campbell Gault

Those places can harbor the ugliest feelings and seamiest beliefs, yet go undetected if a person speaks and acts otherwise.

From Washington Times May 18, 2016

But he imbues even his most marginalized characters with strength, dignity and even wisdom as they boldly navigate the Dream Factory’s seamiest underbelly on their own self-possessed terms.

From Washington Post Jul. 15, 2015

By The seamiest affair in Washington this summer, one of the seamiest in many summers, is the aborted appointment of Brett McGurk as ambassador to Iraq—but not for the reason many think.

From Slate Jun. 20, 2012

But Season 3 of “The Wire” proved that it was also possible to find suspense and meaning in the seamiest margins of city council meetings and municipal elections.

From New York Times Oct. 20, 2011

After all, the actress sees the seamiest side of town; you won't mind leaving it?

From Secret Bread by F. Tennyson (Fryniwyd Tennyson) Jesse




Vocabulary lists containing seamy


Vocabulary.com logo
by dictionary.com

Join 12,000,000 vocabulary learners

Start learning new words today on VocabTrainer.
You'll remember them forever.

Start training