Etymology 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.
1
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:
4 more examples
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, page 129:
The young clergyman, after a few hours of privacy, was sensible that the disorder of his nerves had hurried him into an unseemly outbreak of temper, which there had been nothing in the physician's words to excuse or palliate.1850, Nathaniel Hawthorne, chapter 10, in The Scarlet Letter, a Romance, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor, Reed, and Fields, →OCLC, page 164:
“We’d better stand quiet—he’ll go in again directly. 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:
Etymology 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.
1
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: