seem — English Dictionary

Verb

1. To appear; to look outwardly; to be perceived as.

   Usage

   • copulative

   Examples

   More examples (1)

   She is seeming a bit down these days. Her eyes seem blue. It must have seemed to her she was safe. How'd she seem to you? He seems not to be at home. "It seems like rain". "It seems to me (to be) rather sleety."; "There seem to be a few problems."

   It seems a pity, but I can't see you this weekend.

   He is so fayre, withoutten les, / he semys full well to sytt on des.

   More examples (6)

   1813 (14ᵗʰc.), Dante Alighieri, The Vision of Hell as translated by The Rev. H. F. Cary. He, from his face removing the gross air, / Oft his left hand forth stretch'd, and seem'd alone / By that annoyance wearied.

   They burned the old gun that used to stand in the dark corner up in the garret, close to the stuffed fox that always grinned so fiercely. Perhaps the reason why he seemed in such a ghastly rage was that he did not come by his death fairly. Otherwise his pelt would not have been so perfect. And why else was he put away up there out of sight?—and so magnificent a brush as he had too.[…].

   That the young Mr. Churchills liked—but they did not like him coming round of an evening and drinking weak whisky-and-water while he held forth on railway debentures and corporation loans. Mr. Barrett, however, by fawning and flattery, seemed to be able to make not only Mrs. Churchill but everyone else do what he desired.

   Meanwhile Nanny Broome was recovering from her initial panic and seemed anxious to make up for any kudos she might have lost, by exerting her personality to the utmost. She took the policeman's helmet and placed it on a chair, and unfolded his tunic to shake it and fold it up again for him.

   So while Ralph generally seems to inhabit a different, more glorious and joyful universe than everyone else here his yearning and heartbreak are eminently relateable. Ralph sometimes appears to be a magically demented sprite who has assumed the form of a boy, but he’s never been more poignantly, nakedly, movingly human than he is here.

   Their flight is rapid, with quick flutters of the wings, which seem never to be raised to the level of the body.

2. To befit; to beseem.

   Usage

   • Obsolete

   Examples

   And all within were pathes and alleies wide, With footing worne, and leading inward farre: Faire harbour that them seemes; so in they entred arre.

Verb

1. give a certain impression of being something or having a certain aspect

   Synonyms

   lookappear

   Broader terms

   appear

   Examples

   She seems to be sleeping

   This appears to be a very difficult problem

   More examples (2)

   This project looks fishy

   They appeared like people who had not eaten or slept for a long time

2. (of a proposition) seem to be true, probable, or apparent

   Synonyms

   appear

   Broader terms

   be

   Examples

   It seems that he is very gifted

   It appears that the weather in California is very bad