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rim

nounverbverbnounnounattested in dialogue

  • Australia//ɹɪm//
  • Australia/[ˈɹʷɪm]/
  • New Zealand//ɹəm//
  • New Zealand/[ˈɹʷəm]/
  • Scotland//ɾɪm//

An edge around something, especially when circular.

noun

  1. 1

    An edge around something, especially when circular.

    That's... our galaxy. We're beyond the rim.

  2. 2

    A wheelrim.

    About an hour later, she noticed an all black Phantom with tints and chrome rims riding slowly through the car lot.

  3. 3

    A semicircular copydesk.

    COPY READER — Journeyman, experienced makeup, now slot man on metropolitan midwest daily. Will travel for good rim job on large paper.

    A copy chief with poor people skills makes life miserable for copy editors on the rim; […]

    On the rim are copy editors who edit stories for accuracy, brevity and clarity.

  4. 4

    The narrow surface of wine that meets the glass when it is tilted, used in identifying the age, body, etc.

Etymology

Etymology tree Old English rima Middle English rim English rim From Middle English rim, rym, rime, from Old English rima (“rim, edge, border, bank, coast”), from Proto-Germanic *rimô, *rembô (“edge, border”), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *rem-, *remə- (“to rest, support, be based”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian Rim (“plank, wooden cross, trellis”), Old Saxon rimi (“edge; border; trim”), Icelandic rimi (“a strip of land”).

verb

  1. 1

    To form a rim on.

  2. 2

    To follow the contours, possibly creating a circuit.

    Palm trees rim the beach.

    A walking path rims the island.

  3. 3

    To roll around a rim.

    Near-synonym: lip out

    The golf ball rimmed the cup.

    The basketball rimmed in ... and out.

  4. 4

    To coat the rim of a glass with salt or another powder.

verb

  1. 1

    slangTo lick the anus of a partner as a sexual act; to perform anilingus.

    I had learned to lick their sweaty balls and would know what they wanted if they pulled their pants down and pushed my face in their ass for a rimming out.

    When she started thrusting her hips back against his finger, he turned her over and rimmed her asshole as he fingered her clit.

Etymology

From a variation of ream.

noun

  1. 1

    A membrane.

  2. 2

    obsoleteThe membrane enclosing the intestines; the peritoneum, hence loosely, the intestines; the lower part of the abdomen; belly.

    Moy shall not serve; I will have forty moys; / Or I will fetch thy rim out at thy throat / In drops of crimson blood.

Etymology

From Middle English rim, rym, ryme, reme, from Old English rēoma (“membrane, ligament”), from Proto-West Germanic *reumō.

noun

  1. 1

    A step of a ladder; a rung.

Etymology

Unknown.

Forms

plural
rims
past tense
rimmed
past participle
rimmed
present participle
rimming
third person singular
rims
The neighbouring pagesAlphabetical order follows the rules of the language, not byte values: an accent decides only between two otherwise identical words, and Spanish files Ñ as a letter of its own.

Lexical content from Wiktionary, under CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source entry · Data version 2026-08-23

Rank among the words of the OpenSubtitles 2018 corpus — film and television subtitles, so spoken rather than written usage (CC BY-SA 3.0).