clammy
/ˈklami
/adjective (clammier, clammiest)
1Unpleasantly damp and sticky or slimy to touch: his skin felt cold and clammy...
- Patients often feel cool, yet clammy or sticky to touch, and sometimes have dilated hand veins.
- I looked up trying to hear the message, I felt a cold, clammy hand touch my cheek.
- Her skin was cold and clammy to the touch also as Rebecca held her tiny frail limp hand.
Synonyms
moist, damp, sweaty, perspiring, sweating, sticky;
slimy, slippery, slick
1.1(Of air or atmosphere) damp and unpleasant: the clammy atmosphere of the cave...
- Wind-whipped sheets of rain and blasts of cold clammy air penetrated every layer of clothing.
- Water dripped from a leak in the ceiling, and the air was clammy.
- Soon the lingering sent of burning coal permeated the clammy air.
Synonyms
damp, dank, wet, moisture-laden;
humid, close, muggy, heavy, steamy
Derivatives
clammily
- If you wake up feeling too hot or clammily cold, and your clothing and bedding are soaked or damp and clammy, you have night sweats.
- Angel's hair became plastered to her head while her clothes stuck to her clammily.
- Sweat poured off his body and the single sheet that covered him was damp and clammily cold around his neck.
clamminess
/ noun ...- Some symptoms of hypoglycemia are light-headedness, fainting, diaphoresis, clamminess, palpitations or rapid heart rate.
- He had been referred to the hospital by GP Stephen Kirkham after being taken ill and suffering symptoms which included vomiting, diarrhoea and clamminess.
- Her heart thumped and a cold clamminess filtered into every pore of her skin.
Origin
Late Middle English: from dialect clam 'to be sticky or adhere', of Germanic origin; related to clay.