slim
adjectivenounverbnouncommon in dialogue
- //ˈslɪm//
- /[ˈslɪm]/
Slender; thin. Slender in an attractive way.
adjective
- 1
Slender; thin. Slender in an attractive way.
Movie stars are usually slim, attractive, and young.
- 2
Slender; thin. Designed to make the wearer appear slim.
- 3
Slender; thin. Long and narrow.
- 4
Slender; thin. Of a reduced size, with the intent of being more efficient.
- 5
Very small, tiny.
I'm afraid your chances are quite slim.
Juries who will convict on the slimmest evidence.
Wolves' debatable third in the last 10 minutes, with the ball only crossing the line by the slimmest of margins if at all, ensured a cracking finale, although City would have been left aggrieved had they let the win slip.
- 6
Bad, of questionable quality; not strongly built, flimsy.
A slimly-shod lad;
a slimly-made cart.
- 7
obsoleteSly, crafty.
Etymology
Borrowing from Low German or Dutch slim (“bad, sly, clever”), from Middle Dutch slim (“bad, crooked”), from Old Dutch *slimb, from Proto-West Germanic *slimb, from Proto-Germanic *slimbaz (“oblique, crooked”). The sense development would have been "slanting, cunning" (Dutch) > "insignificant, slight" and then "thin, graceful" in English, a shift that Liberman calls an "incredible amelioration" of word meaning. The pejorative sense found in Low German and Dutch is also found preserved in the archaic English noun slim (“worthless or lazy person”), also comparable to the South African use of the adjective as "crafty, sly." Compare Dutch slim (“smart, clever, crafty”), Middle High German slimp (“slanting, awry”), German schlimm (“bad”), West Frisian slim (“bad, dire”).
noun
- 1
A type of cigarette substantially longer and thinner than normal cigarettes.
I only smoke slims.
- 2
A potato farl.
- 3
AIDS, or the chronic wasting associated with its later stages.
As in the West, only about 50 per cent of patients with slim fully investigated will have a putative pathogen identified.
- 4
slangCocaine.
verb
- 1
To lose weight in order to achieve slimness.
- 2
To make slimmer; to reduce in size.
noun
- 1
Variant of slingAlternative form of sling (“type of alcoholic mixed drink”)
Crump, having fortified himself with a bobstick of rum slim, moved cautiously among the crowds who bustled along Fleet Street.
Forms
- plural
- slims
- comparative
- slimmer
- superlative
- slimmest
- past tense
- slimmed
- past participle
- slimmed
- present participle
- slimming
- third person singular
- slims