How to Use unseemly in a Sentence

unseemly

1 of 2 adjective
  • He spent unseemly amounts of money on himself.
  • Dents or glass damage from hail can be at best unseemly and at worst a safety issue.
    — Claire Rafford, The Indianapolis Star, 21 June 2021
  • Democrats will spend a lot of time talking about the unseemly rush to fill Ginsburg’s seat.
    — Mark Sherman, chicagotribune.com, 11 Oct. 2020
  • Democrats will spend a lot of time talking about the unseemly rush to fill Ginsburg's seat.
    — Mark Sherman, Star Tribune, 11 Oct. 2020
  • But talking right now about Tiger playing golf again is both unseemly and ridiculous.
    — Christine Brennan, USA TODAY, 24 Feb. 2021
  • An out-of-the-blue showstopper would seem to accomplish that unseemly goal.
    — Lance Eliot, Forbes, 10 July 2022
  • Uhl says that utilizing this unique aspect of Twitch is unseemly.
    — Matthew Gault, Wired, 5 Oct. 2020
  • And some of the more unseemly elements of the cell ag process are also its most cumbersome.
    — Kate Aronoff, The New Republic, 29 Sep. 2021
  • Also undisputed was that the traffic scheme was at least unseemly.
    — Adam Liptak, New York Times, 14 Jan. 2020
  • The puppet’s antics also put him on the radar of a couple unseemly fellows.
    — Brian Truitt, USA TODAY, 9 Dec. 2022
  • Big business profiting on the backs of unpaid help has never looked so unseemly.
    — Paul Daugherty, The Enquirer, 10 Aug. 2020
  • Even if Cohn had called the vote perfectly, his eagerness to call the next should have been unseemly.
    — Christopher Beha, Harper's Magazine, 24 Nov. 2020
  • The spectacle that ensued this week was unseemly and chaotic.
    — Tom McTague, The Atlantic, 7 July 2022
  • Now President Joe Biden has a chance to make a sharp break from this unseemly past.
    — Matt Ford, The New Republic, 2 Feb. 2021
  • Olivia Wilde was served legal docs from Jason Sudeikis in an unseemly way.
    — Charles Trepany, USA TODAY, 25 Aug. 2022
  • But her mother, who found it unseemly for a little girl to be swinging such a thing about, chopped it off one night while my mother was asleep.
    — Esther Yi, New Yorker, 14 June 2026
  • The body remains taut, and there is no cowl shake, axle tramp, or unseemly rattles or vibrations, even at full throttle.
    — Brock Yates, Car and Driver, 29 Dec. 2022
  • The current weeping and wailing over the Red Sox is unseemly.
    — Bob Ryan, BostonGlobe.com, 28 July 2023
  • As unseemly as the revelations are, there isn’t much else the palace can do to sanction him, Prescott said.
    — Danica Kirka, Chicago Tribune, 1 Feb. 2026
  • There ensued a legal tussle so unseemly that many believe the Tata brand lost some of its luster.
    — Tunku Varadarajan, WSJ, 13 July 2021
  • To the straight world—and much of the gay world—the leather scene was the unseemly underbelly of gay liberation.
    — Michael Schulman, The New Yorker, 30 Jan. 2023
  • The human figures – no faces, just limbs flailing about – are all in the midst of some unseemly activity.
    — Douglas Markowitz, Miami Herald, 21 Jan. 2026
  • For any of us who have ever nursed private, unseemly doubts or jealousies, Arnett is a tonic.
    — Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 18 Dec. 2025
  • Using family events to network is unseemly, if all too common.
    — Judith Martin, Sun Sentinel, 25 Apr. 2026
  • More unseemly or even criminal material may well come out.
    — Gilad Edelman, The Atlantic, 7 Feb. 2026
  • Charles, Anne, Andrew, and Edward are all adrift in ways that seem selfish and unseemly.
    — Elizabeth Holmes, Town & Country, 21 Oct. 2020
  • However, even if the bylaws allow it, the tactic could appear unseemly to the members.
    — Kelly G. Richardson, San Diego Union-Tribune, 18 Sep. 2021
  • Campaigning may be unseemly, but in an Oscar race where only five slots exist, presence can tilt the scales.
    — Clayton Davis, Variety, 1 Sep. 2025
  • But the attempts were unseemly, an unattractive display of the power of this massive industry.
    — Steven Levy, WIRED, 17 Mar. 2023
  • The fight for credit has been a recurring and unseemly undercurrent in Berea.
    — Doug Lesmerises, cleveland.com, 5 Aug. 2019

unseemly

2 of 2 adverb
  • But what if there’s just a spot of mold, or there’s a corner that’s looking a little unseemly?
    — Brittany Leitner, Better Homes & Gardens, 24 Dec. 2023
  • This side of the financing world is competitive in its jostling for clients and can be a bit unseemly.
    — Brendan Coffey, Sportico.com, 9 Oct. 2024
  • That, of course, is why a cluttered home is both so common in America and so unseemly.
    — Amanda Mull, The Atlantic, 8 June 2020
  • The dance’s unseemly stomping and pronated legs clashed with people’s perceptions of what dance should be.
    — Lauren Warnecke, Chicago Tribune, 8 Sep. 2022
  • It’s often considered taboo — or perhaps just unseemly — to talk about money.
    — The Motley Fool, Dallas News, 25 June 2023
  • Video from the scene, which some fellow competitors and other witnesses found unseemly, was widely viewed online.
    — Brett Martel, ajc, 8 Mar. 2023
  • These packets are trash at their inception, so there is something extra unseemly wasteful about completing their trip to the dump without even squeezing them.
    — John Hodgman, New York Times, 30 Nov. 2023
  • That’s when Lakins allowed four runs on five hits, with an additional run charged to Baumann — an inning as unseemly as the hail that had fallen earlier.
    — Andy Kostka, Baltimore Sun, 16 Apr. 2022
  • After leaving office in 2001, Barak undermined his standing by adopting a lavish lifestyle deemed unseemly for a Labor leader.
    — Aluf Benn, Foreign Affairs, 8 June 2016
  • These infections aren’t just unseemly looking but can be disfiguring, have long-lasting effects within the body and can temporarily disqualify an athlete from practice and competition to prevent localized outbreaks.
    — Rebecca Kreston, Discover Magazine, 2 Feb. 2012
  • In addition to money, Othram encouraged supporters to donate their DNA, a request that some critics called unseemly, saying donors should contribute to databases easily available to all investigators.
    — New York Times, 27 Mar. 2022

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'unseemly.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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