v. [UN-2 4.] trans. To undo the seam or seams of (a garment, etc.). Also fig., to rip up.
1592. Greene, Groat’s W. Wit (1617), 28. In a thread-bare cloake,… his hose vnseamed.
1605. Shaks., Macb., I. ii. 22. Till he vnseam’d him from the Naue to th’ Chops, And fix’d his Head vpon our Battlements.
1608. Beaum. & Fl., Four Plays in One, I. iii. Nor a vein runs here From head to foot, but Sophocles would unseame, and … shoot his scornfull blood Into their eyes.
1631. in Verney Mem. (1907), I. 131. Our barke … had her bottome strucken out and was unseamed.
1812. Byron, Ch. Har., I. lxxvii. One gallant steed is stretch’d a mangled corse; Another, hideous sight! unseam’d appears.
1824. in Spirit Pub. Jrnls. (1825), 194. Giving Mr. Trotter a thump on the eye, and unseaming his shirt from top to bottom!
1848. T. Aird, Chr. Bride, I. xiii. The monster’s … tusks backward glance To gather fury for his onset dread, To unseam her lovely limb.
