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ect, occasion, purpose, or character; suitable; fit; becoming; comely; decorous. He had a seemly nose. Chaucer. I am a woman, lacking wit To make a seemly answer to such persons. Shak. Suspense of judgment and exercise of charity were safer and seemlier for Christian men than the hot pursuit of these controversies. Hoo…

Comely or decent appearance. [Obs.] Rom. of R. Spenser.

Fit; suitable; becoming. [Archaic] In beseemly order sitten there. Shenstone.

Not seemly; unbecoming; indecent. An unseemly outbreak of temper. Hawthorne.

Suitable in words, behavior, dress, or ceremony; becoming; fit; decorous; proper; seemly; as, decent conduct; decent language. Shak. Before his decent steps. Milton.

a character, or to the time, place, and occasion; marked with decorum; becoming; proper; seemly; befitting; as, a decorous speech; decorous behavior; a decorous dress for a judge. A decorous pretext the war. Motley. -- De*co"rous*ly, adv. -- De*co"rous*ness, n.

wn character, or to the place and occasion; decency of conduct; seemliness; that which is seemly or suitable. Negligent of the duties and decorums of his station. Hallam. If your master Would have a queen his beggar, you must tell him, That majesty, to keep decorum, must No less beg than a kingdom. Shak.…

To decorate; to make showy and fine. [Obs.] And with sad cypress seemly it embraves. Spenser.

ions which are usually seen in different individuals, excluding everything defective or unseemly, so as to form a type or model of the species. Thus, the Apollo Belvedere is the ideal of the beauty and proportion of the human frame. Fleming. Beau ideal. See Beau ideal.

To plait. [Obs.] Full seemly her wimple ipinched was. Chaucer.

Order; arrangement. [Obs.] Thus sat they all around in seemly rate. Spenser.

father. Shak. Save your reverence, Saving your reverence, an apologetical phrase for an unseemly expression made in the presence of a priest or clergyman. -- Sir reverence, a contracted form of Save your reverence. Such a one as a man may not speak of, without he say. "Sir reverence." Shak. -- To do reverence, to show…

Unseemly. [Obs.] Spenser.

In a seemly manner. [Obs.]

The quality or state of being seemly: comeliness; propriety.

To contend for superiority in an unseemly maner; to scuffle; to struggle; to wrangle; to quarrel.

Not behooving or becoming; unseemly. [Obs. & R.] Gower.

The quality or state of being unseemly; unbecomingness. Udall.

rly worn by women as an outdoor protection, and still retained in the dress of nuns. Full seemly her wympel ipinched is. Chaucer. For she had laid her mournful stole aside, And widowlike sad wimple thrown away. Spenser. Then Vivian rose, And from her brown-locked head the wimple throws. M. Arnold.