clammy

English

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.

clammy (comparative clammier, superlative clammiest)

Cold and damp, usually referring to hands or palms.
His hands were clammy from fright.
- 1627 (indicated as 1626), Francis [Bacon], “VII. Century.”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. […], London: […] William Rawley […]; [p]rinted by J[ohn] H[aviland] for William Lee […], →OCLC:
  The cause is a temperate conglutination ; for both bodies are clammy and viscous , and do bridle the deflux of humours to the hurts , without penning them in too much
- 1919, Christopher Morley, The Haunted Bookshop‎^[1], New York, N.Y.: Grosset & Dunlap Publishers, →OCLC, page 171:
  Then he could see the modest bookseller, somewhat clammy in his extremities and lost within his academic robe and hood, nervously fidgeting his mortar-board, haled forward by ushers, and tottering rubescent before the chancellor, provost, president (or whoever it might be) who hands out the diploma.
- 2010 December, Sharon Orsack, “Chapter One”, in Bobby & Me: A Novel, Tate Publishing & Enterprises, →ISBN, page 9:
  Jenny Lee reached out and took hold of the man’s hand. It was cold and clammy, a deadlike feeling.
(medicine) The quality of normal skin signs, epidermis that is neither diaphoretic nor dry.

Cold and damp