seam / sēm/ • n. 1. a line along which two pieces of fabric are sewn together in a garment or other article. ∎  a line where the edges of two pieces of wood, wallpaper, or another material touch each other. ∎  a long thin indentation or scar: a sun-scorched face fissured with delicate seams.2. an underground layer, as of ore or coal.• v. [tr.] 1. join with a seam.2. [usu. as adj.] (seamed) make a long narrow indentation in: men in middle age have seamed faces.PHRASES: bursting (or bulging) at the seams inf. (of a place or building) full to overflowing.come (or fall) apart at the seams inf. (of a person or system) be in a very poor condition and near to collapse: the attitude of the airport guard was symptomatic of a system falling apart at the seams.DERIVATIVES: seam·er n.

Seam

a horse-load; a load or burden; specifically, eight bushels of grain; three hundred-weight of hay or manure; two hundred-weight of straw (a cartload).

Examples : seam of apples (9 pecks); of corn (a quarter), 1440; of dung, 1726; of glass (120 lb.), 1325; of grain (8 bushels); of hay (3 ctw), 1880; of lime, 1536; of manure, (3 cwt); of oats (8 bushels), 1377; of sand (6-8 pecks); of straw (3 cwt); of wood, 1545.

seam junction made by sewing; line made by two abutting edges. OE. sēam = MDu. sōm (Du. zoom), OHG. soum (G. saum), ON. saumr — Gmc. *saumaz, f. *su- SEW.
Hence seam vb. XVI, seamstress, sempstress XVII.