seam

Everyday

1. A seam is the line where two pieces of cloth, leather or other material are sewn or joined together. tree →
2. A seam is a thin layer of coal, gold or another mineral in rock underground. tree →
3. In cricket, the seam is the raised stitching round the ball. tree →
4. To seam something is to join it with a seam. tree →
5. To seam something can also mean to mark it with deep lines, like the wrinkles on a face. tree →

In the lessons

In sewing and design lessons seams hold clothes together. In geography and history a coal seam is what miners dug out. Phrases: come apart at the seams (break or fall apart, also about plans or people), bursting at the seams (very full), seamless (smooth, with no joins), seam bowler (cricket).

Examples

• The seam on my jeans split when I bent down. tree →
• Grandma sewed a neat seam along the edge of the curtain. tree →
• The miners followed a thick seam of coal deep underground. tree →
• The football has stitched seams between its panels. tree →
• The cricket ball swung because the bowler held the seam upright. tree →
• The classroom was bursting at the seams with forty children. tree →
• Our plan for the party began to come apart at the seams. tree →
• Her face was seamed with many wrinkles, and was as brown as leather, and every now and then she stopped to wipe the perspiration which rolled down her face. tree →

Note

Plural seams. Seam sounds exactly like «seem» (to appear) — a homophone: «It seems my seam is torn.» Seamless means smooth, with no breaks.