seam
/siːm
/noun
1A line where two pieces of fabric are sewn together in a garment or other article.He turned to the foreman and said, ‘The patterns of the side seams on these coats do not match.’...
- The flapper dress echoed the flattened forms and straight seams of the Japanese kimono.
- Cut two pieces of terry cloth, each as wide as the chair, plus 1-inch seam allowances.
Synonyms
join, stitching, joint, junction, closure, line;
Surgery suture
1.1A line where the edges of two pieces of wood, wallpaper, or another material touch each other: the task involved clamping the panels into position and arc welding a seam to join them...
- Apply the spray to the point of runoff to as many surfaces as possible, especially joints, seams, cracks, ledges, and corners.
- To hide the rough seams, I purchased raw wood moulding from the lumberyard and finished it to match the aged look of the Arquati frame.
- A seam roller is a handy tool that flattens the seams between lengths of wallpaper.
1.2A long thin indentation or scar: the track cleaves a seam through corn...
- This more recent house on the Izu Peninsula marks a temporary break with mining the fertile seams of Toyko's quixotic urban geology.
Synonyms
furrow, crease, corrugation, fold, groove, crinkle, pucker, line, ridge, wrinkle, crow's foot, scar
2An underground layer of a mineral such as coal or gold: the buried forests became seams of coal...
- A seam of coal about two feet thick was discovered, but underlying this seam of coal was a seam of clay approximately four feet thick.
- There was a coal seam on his property, a V-shaped trench behind the old homesite where the farm family had dug out chunks for home use.
- There in the bottom of the brook was a seam of amethyst crystals that averaged perhaps to be one half inch thick and a inch long.
Synonyms
layer, stratum, vein, lode, deposit
2.1A supply of something valuable: Sunderland have a rich seam of experienced players...
- On his mother's side of the family, Ian found a further rich seam of history.
- But there is now a seam of talent in reserve that gets the manager's blood racing.
2.2A trace or presence of something: there is a seam of despondency in Stipe’s words...
- But Australia has always had a seam of prim respectability running alongside its man o' the people stuff.
- Each president had a seam of fatalism, but neither acted as if he lacked the power to shape the course of the conflict.
verb
1Join with a seam: it can be used for seaming garments...
- When straight-stitch seaming, gently stretch the fabric in front of and behind the presser foot as you sew.
- Perfect for traveling due to its wrinkle resistance, tussah is appropriate for garments where shaping is produced by seaming, rather than gathering or pleating.
- Before cutting, review faux fur seaming options and note whether seam allowances will require adjustment.
2 (usually as adjective seamed) Make a long, narrow indentation in: men in middle age have seamed faces...
- He was a stocky, dark, hard-countenanced man who had never bothered to have removed the scar that seamed his brow.
- His face was seamed with wrinkles, and he generally dressed as if he were an unmade bed.
- They were moving away from the sea, over flat farmlands seamed with stony riverbeds.
Phrases
bursting (or bulging) at the seams
come (or fall) apart at the seams
Origin
Old English sēam, of Germanic origin; related to Dutch zoom and German Saum.