unseamv.
transitive. To undo the seam or seams of (a garment, etc.). Also figurative, to rip up.
ΘΚΠ
the world > existence and causation > creation > destruction > tearing or tearing apart > tear [verb (transitive)] > tear apart
to-loukc890
to-braidc893
to-tearc893
to-teec893
to-rendc950
to-breakc1200
to-tugc1220
to-lima1225
rivea1250
to-drawa1250
to-tosea1250
drawa1300
rendc1300
to-rit13..
to-rivec1300
to-tusec1300
rakea1325
renta1325
to-pullc1330
to-tightc1330
tirec1374
halea1398
lacerate?a1425
to-renta1425
yryve1426
raga1450
to pull to (or in) piecesc1450
ravec1450
discerp1483
pluck1526
rip1530
decerp1531
rift1534
dilaniate1535
rochec1540
rack1549
teasea1550
berend1577
distract1585
ream1587
distrain1590
unrive1592
unseam1592
outrive1598
divulse1602
dilacerate1604
harrow1604
tatter1608
mammocka1616
uprentc1620
divell1628
divellicate1638
seam-rend1647
proscind1659
skail1768
screeda1785
spret1832
to tear to shreds1837
ribbon1897
the world > textiles and clothing > textiles > textile manufacture > manufacture textile fabric or that which consists of > sewing or ornamenting textile fabric > sew or ornament textile fabric [verb (transitive)] > sew > undo sewing
unsew1340
unstitch1538
unseam1592
unpick1775
1592 Greenes Groats-worth of Witte sig. Ev In a thread-bare cloake,..his shooes vnseamed.
a1616 W. Shakespeare Macbeth (1623) i. ii. 22 Till he vnseam'd him from the Naue toth' Chops, And fix'd his Head vpon our Battlements. View more context for this quotation
a1625 F. Beaumont & J. Fletcher Four Plays in One in Comedies & Trag. (1647) sig. Ddddddddv/2 Not a veine runs here from head to foote, but Sophocles would unseame, and..shoote his scornfull blood into their eyes.
1631 in F. P. Verney & M. M. Verney Mem. Verney Family 17th Cent. (1907) I. 131 Our barke..had her bottome strucken out and was unseamed.
1812 Ld. Byron Childe Harold: Cantos I & II i. lxxvii. 46 One gallant steed is stretch'd a mangled corse; Another, hideous sight! unseam'd appears.
1824 in Spirit of Public Jrnls. (1825) 194 Giving Mr. Trotter a thump on the eye, and unseaming his shirt from top to bottom!
1835 T. Aird in Blackwood's Edinb. Mag. Feb. 183 The monster's..tusks backward glance To gather fury for his onset dread, To unseam her lovely limb.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1926; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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