Seem

v. i. [imp. & p. p. SEEMED; p. pr. & vb. n. SEEMING.] [Prov. Eng. seem, to think, imagine; O. Eng. seem, to become, befit; A-S. sēman, to judge, appease; Icel. semia, to make peace, moderate; Sw. sämja, to reconcile; Goth. samjan, to please; Icel. söma, to become, beseem; Dan. sömme sig, to become, to be decent, to beseem.] To appear; to have a show or semblance; to present an appearance; to look; to strike one's apprehension or fancy as being.

Thou art not what thou seem'st. Shak.

All seemed well pleased; all seemed, but were not all. Milton.

It seems, it has the appearance of truth or fact; it is understood as true; it is said.

A prince of Italy, it seems, entertained his mistress on a great lake. Addison.

Synonyms— To appear; look. — SEEM, APPEAR. To appear has reference to a thing's being presented to our view; as, the sun appears; to seem is connected with the idea of semblance, and usually implies an inference of our mind as to the probability of a thing's being so; as, a storm seems to be coming. “The story appears to be true” means that the facts, as presented, go to show its truth: “the story seems to be true” means it has the semblance of being so, and we infer that it is true. “His first and principal care being to appear unto his people such as he would have them be, and to be such as he appeared.” Sidney.

Ham. Ay, madam, it is common. Queen. If it be, Why seems it so particular with thee? Ham. Seems, madam? Nay, it is; I know not seems. Shak.

— SHOULD SEEM, WOULD SEEM. These phrases differ only in strength. We use “should seem” when the case is so strong as to render the inference almost a necessary one; we use “would seem” to express a prevailing semblance or probability, with perhaps a slight implication that the case may be otherwise. Mr. Pickering supposed “would seem” to be a peculiarity of America; it is used, however, by English writers in the sense given above.