From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishseamseam /siːm/ noun [countable] 1 TIMa line where two pieces of cloth, leather etc have been stitched together She was repairing Billy’s trousers, where the seam had come undone. Join the shoulder seams together.2 HEGa layer of a mineral under the groundseam of coal/iron etc3 → be coming/falling apart at the seams4 → be bursting/bulging at the seams5 → a (rich) seam of something6 a line where two pieces of metal, wood etc have been joined together
Examples from the Corpus
seam• Neil's shirt was torn at the shoulder seam.• Although sturdily built, the handsets were being returned because of cracking and splitting at the seams.• In New York and elsewhere, a new race consciousness was beginning to tear at the seams of the civil rights consensus.seam of coal/iron etc• The buried forests became seams of coal and the strata of mud and sand hardened into shale and sandstone.• And how he could work up to his thighs in water in a two-foot seam of coal.• As the seams of coal and iron were exhausted, or became unprofitable to work, mining and smelting diminished.Origin seam Old English 