1. Word finder
  2. Word definitions
  3. seldom

Find the word definition

What is "seldom"

Crossword clues for seldom

seldom
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
seldom
adverb
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADJECTIVE
used
▪ However, today such doubling is seldom used, for several reasons.
▪ This provision is seldom used, perhaps because reasonable employers reward such employees sufficiently well so that they do not apply for compensation.
▪ Mr. Robert Hughes: The Minister has said that the sanctions are seldom used.
■ VERB
come
▪ Urban properties seldom come with an endowment, and opportunities for income-generation are generally limited by restrictions of space.
▪ Small strokes of frontal lobe seldom come to the attention of neurologists.
▪ Our boy friends seldom came to the house.
▪ But the sun seldom came sideways, preferring instead to strike straight down from above.
▪ She seldom came home after school, but went to friends.
▪ But for refugee children these social conventions seldom came into play.
▪ But social reforms and advances in social provision seldom come through mass demand.
▪ Excess stock of hard-to-sell cars will sometimes be cleared out virtually at cost, but diesels seldom come into this category.
do
▪ Most people have been exposed to it, but if your-immune system is intact the protozoa will seldom do harm.
▪ Mother seldom did this-it was my sisters' work.
▪ But seldom do these companies follow up on the true costs of counterproductive policies and decisions.
feel
▪ Mr Norrie rarely goes out because he seldom feels well.
▪ She seldom feels unwell, and has not visited the doctor or taken a day off in more than ten years.
▪ She had seldom felt so old or so tired or so wretched.
▪ I have seldom felt the need to recognise these as distinct from rise-fall and fall-rise respectively.
find
▪ We seldom find any non-white faces.
▪ The type of mind needed in cryptologic work, it argued, is seldom found in the Army.
▪ The overriding importance of death and disease in the seventeenth century have seldom found such a chronicler.
get
▪ But I have seldom got very close to these quick, nervous birds.
▪ A really fine debut album by a local jazz player who seldom gets any ink.
▪ Even when caught by the coastguard or the Immigration and Naturalisation Service they seldom get sent back.
go
▪ He seldom went to bed before midnight, and then often read the plays of Corneille till 2 a.m.
▪ He infringed the Islannc code by drinking alcohol, eating pork, and seldom going to mosque.
▪ We did not often have other boys to stay, almost never a girl, and we seldom went away on visits.
▪ Since most students seldom go to class, there is also little intellectual exchange.
▪ Scorpions seldom go out of their way to attack people and accidents usually happen when scorpions are trodden on.
▪ Counselors seldom went into town in the evenings or on their days off.
▪ So I seldom went home on holidays.
▪ Against ... he doesn't have much to do with the horses. Seldom goes racing.
hear
▪ Such abuses, reported, however, are seldom heard beyond the walls of state agencies-for two reasons.
▪ I loved the simple harmonic melodies, and wondered why I seldom hear anything as good on the radio.
leave
▪ Its knowledge of its home range, however, is not restricted to these tracks, even though it seldom leaves them.
▪ Because she seldom left home, her sisters made it a habit to look after her.
▪ She usually builds on the shores of an estuary and there she sits devotedly, seldom leaving the nest.
make
▪ Men in love may offer a great deal but they seldom make such a full commitment.
▪ But running mates seldom make much difference on Election Day.
▪ Small wonder, perhaps, that claims are seldom made by people who enjoy executive status.
▪ But in the mutable world of the modern organization, major decisions are seldom made solely on the basis of hard facts.
▪ But while cynics often serve as acute commentators, they seldom make for effective organizational leaders.
▪ Athletes will seldom make fools of themselves for the press.
see
▪ Taking a Sunday evening stroll was a regular family pastime, an enjoyable occasion that is unfortunately seldom seen today.
▪ But we seldom see ourselves as others see us.
▪ There was a fluency and an edification and upbuilding such as I have seldom seen.
▪ He has too often been seen snarling and too seldom seen smiling.
▪ Lone wolves are seldom seen in threes.
▪ Karen had seldom seen him so angry.
▪ A new home for the museum exhibits that are seldom seen.
▪ Because his shoulders are narrow, he never works in his shirt sleeves, and is seldom seen publicly in casual clothes.
seem
▪ Partnership where there is no consensus seldom seems to work.
▪ It seldom seemed vital for the individual himself.
▪ Consequently the chants seldom seem banal or trivial, in spite of being repeated over and over again.
▪ And there were a million pots in her kitchen, which she seemed seldom to use, except tonight in his honor.
▪ Within an office environment where there seldom seems to be time to learn new software this approach may find a considerable following.
speak
▪ He spoke seldom, but he was never impatient with her, always kind, a companionable father figure.
▪ I had the decency to tell her often that I loved her; she smiled weakly, but seldom spoke.
▪ He seldom spoke about himself but he had wanted suddenly to tell her what his own plans were.
▪ But no one really knew, since he seldom spoke, except in monosyllables, and ignored most greetings.
▪ This is because Our Lady seldom spoke.
▪ He planted trees, raised cattle, married, and had seven children, and seldom spoke a harsh word.
▪ She seldom spoke, but Paul had now and again addressed a kindly remark to her, to which she responded briefly.
▪ In such circumstances jokes were usually omitted and the President would listen intently but seldom speak.
use
▪ The kinds of attack perpetrated by women seldom use deadly force.
▪ Many lawyers who specialize in estate planning say they are aware of the filing procedure but seldom use it.
▪ We often justify the fact that routinely-collected information is seldom used by saying that it is unreliable.
▪ His television was borrowed, and seldom used, and he did not bother much about any other amenities.
▪ It was admitted that this section worried the Fair Employment Commission, even though it was seldom used by employers.
▪ Motion picture video is seldom used due to storage and performance limitations.
▪ The only other recreational drug used in this way is nicotine, which is also seldom used for outright intoxication.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ Seldom have I read a book with such a powerful message.
▪ Anna seldom eats at home.
▪ Council meetings are seldom longer than an hour.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ And the evening will include a session with rare and seldom heard recordings by the star.
▪ But no one really knew, since he seldom spoke, except in monosyllables, and ignored most greetings.
▪ He seldom wasted time wondering why people wanted other people dead.
▪ He has too often been seen snarling and too seldom seen smiling.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Seldom

Seldom \Sel"dom\, a. Rare; infrequent. [Archaic.] ``A suppressed and seldom anger.''
--Jer. Taylor.

Seldom

Seldom \Sel"dom\ (s[e^]l"d[u^]m), adv. [Usually, Compar. More seldom (m[=o]r" s[e^]l"d[u^]m); superl. Most seldom (m[=o]st" s[e^]l"d[u^]m); but sometimes also, Seldomer (s[e^]l"d[u^]m*[~e]r), Seldomest.] [AS. seldan, seldon, seldum, fr. seld rare; akin to OFries. sielden, D. zelden, G. selten, OHG. seltan, Icel. sjaldan, Dan. sielden, Sw. s["a]llan, Goth. sildaleiks marvelous.] Rarely; not often; not frequently.

Wisdom and youth are seldom joined in one.
--Hooker.

Related phrases:
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
seldom

late Old English seldum, alteration of seldan "seldom, rarely," from Proto-Germanic *selda- "strange, rare" (cognates: Old Norse sjaldan, Old Frisian selden, Dutch zelden, Old High German seltan, German selten), perhaps ultimately from the base of self (q.v.).\n

\nForm shifted on analogy of adverbial dative plurals in -um (such as whilom "at one time," from while). The same development also created litlum from little, miclum from mickle. German seltsam "strange, odd," Dutch zeldzaam are related, but with the second element conformed to their versions of -some.\n

\nSeldom-times is from mid-15c. (Old English had seldhwanne "seldwhen"). Seldom-seen is from mid-15c. (Old English had seldsiene, "seld-seen").\n

\nSome compounds using the old form survived through Middle English, such as selcouth"rarely or little-known, unusual, strange, wonderful," from Old English selcuð, seld-cuð, from seldan + cuð (see couth). Old English seldan had comparative seldor, superlative seldost; in early Middle English, as seldan changed form and lost its connection with these, selde was formed as a positive. Shakespeare uses seld-shown.

Wiktionary
seldom

a. (context obsolete English) rare; infrequent adv. infrequently, rarely.

Related phrases:
WordNet
seldom

adv. not often; "we rarely met" [syn: rarely] [ant: frequently]

Usage examples of "seldom".

While it is indeed possible to derive stem cells from aborted embryos, it is seldom done for two reasons.

The absolute silence of this seldom used dungeon was broken by a creaking sound, exactly the sound, he realised, of the handle to the door below that gave admittance upon the prisoners.

It is very seldom in the history of political issues, even when partisan feeling is most deeply developed, that so absolute a division is found as was recorded upon the question of adopting the Fourteenth Amendment.

Nations thus tempted to interfere are not always able to resist the counsels of seeming expediency and ungenerous ambition, although measures adopted under such influences seldom fail to be unfortunate and injurious to those adopting them.

Sir Henry Ancred is perhaps the worst of the lot, but, because he is an actor, his friends accept his behaviour as part of his stock-in-trade, and apart from an occasional feeling of shyness in his presence, seldom make the mistake of worrying about him.

For instance, his eyes were of a dark brown hue seldom seen on Stratos, set anomalously far apart.

Accuracy of thought has seldom been more recklessly offered up to pungency of expression than in the above-cited aphorism of Pope.

As a rule, this artificiality is accepted as Irishism, or Yeats is even credited with simplicity because he uses short words, but in fact one seldom comes on six consecutive lines of his verse in which there is not an archaism or an affected turn of speech.

The motto had been used so often in the struggle to decide the question of invasion that Bade seldom noticed it any more.

It was seldom now that a visiting carriage came dri vine through the water-filled bawn to cleanse its wheels before the return journey.

Mad Binny spoke with the calmness of one who had seldom been contradicted.

It was widely known that Cavilon disliked the London air and was seldom, if ever, seen in anything but his closed coach.

Although it was only a three-hour flight in the company jet which Garry loved to pilot himself, yet these days Centaine very seldom saw them at Weltevreden.

They seldom laugh or smile, even under the inspiration of chicha, and months of intercourse with them did not discover to us the power of song, though Villavicencio says they do sometimes intone fragments of prose in their festival orgies.

Neighbouring cistrons on the same chromosome form a tightly-knit troupe of travelling companions who seldom fail to get on board the same vessel when meiosis time comes around.