Clammy

/ˈklæmi/ adj

adj ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Cold and damp, usually referring to hands or palms.

    "His hands were clammy from fright."

  2. 2
    The quality of normal skin signs, epidermis that is neither diaphoretic nor dry.
Adjective
  1. 1
    unpleasantly cool and humid wordnet

Example

More examples

"Awed by the vision and the voice divine / ('twas no mere dream; their very looks I knew, / I saw the fillets round their temples twine, / and clammy sweat did all my limbs bedew) / forthwith, upstarting, from the couch I flew, / and hands and voice together raised in prayer, / and wine unmixt upon the altars threw. / This done, to old Anchises I repair, / pleased with the rites fulfilled, and all the tale declare."

Etymology

From Middle English clam (“viscous, sticky; slimy”) + -y, from Old English clǣman (“to smear, bedaub”). Compare German klamm (“clammy”) and klemmen (“to be stuck, stick”). See also clam.

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