CS Knowledge Base

• IPA^(key): /ˈslɪm/, [ˈslɪm]

  • Audio (US):

    (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪm
• Hyphenation: slim

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.^[1]

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."^[2]

Compare Dutch slim (“smart, clever, crafty”), Middle High German slimp (“slanting, awry”), German schlimm (“bad”), West Frisian slim (“bad, dire”).

slim (comparative slimmer, superlative slimmest)

1. Slender; thin.
   1. (of a person or a person's build) Slender in an attractive way.

      Synonyms: lithe, svelte, willowy; see also Thesaurus:slender

      Movie stars are usually slim, attractive, and young.

   2. (by extension, of clothing) Designed to make the wearer appear slim.

      Synonym: slimming

   3. (of an object) Long and narrow.

      Synonyms: fine, stalky, sticklike, thin, virgate

   4. (of a workforce) Of a reduced size, with the intent of being more efficient.

      Synonym: agile

2. (of something abstract like a chance or margin) Very small, tiny.

   Synonyms: infinitesimal, marginal; see also Thesaurus:tiny

   I'm afraid your chances are quite slim.

   Juries who will convict on the slimmest evidence.

   • 2011 January 15, Saj Chowdhury, “Man City 4 - 3 Wolves”, in BBC‎^[1]:

     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.

3. (rustic, Northern England, Scotland) Bad, of questionable quality; not strongly built, flimsy.

   Synonyms: lousy, shoddy; delicate, frail; see also Thesaurus:low-quality, Thesaurus:fragile

   A slimly-shod lad;

   a slimly-made cart.

4. (South Africa, obsolete in UK) Sly, crafty.

   Synonyms: cunning, frood; see also Thesaurus:wily

• The Dictionary of the Scots Language

slim (countable and uncountable, plural slims)

1. A type of cigarette substantially longer and thinner than normal cigarettes.

   I only smoke slims.

2. (Ireland, regional) A potato farl.
3. (East Africa, uncountable) AIDS, or the chronic wasting associated with its later stages.
   • 2003, Charled F. Gilks, “HIV in the Developing World”, in David A. Warrell et al., editors, Oxford Textbook of Medicine‎^[2], 4th edition, volume 1, →ISBN, page 446:

     As in the West, only about 50 per cent of patients with slim fully investigated will have a putative pathogen identified.

4. (slang, uncountable) Cocaine.

• (AIDS): Slim

slim (third-person singular simple present slims, present participle slimming, simple past and past participle slimmed)

1. (intransitive) To lose weight in order to achieve slimness.
2. (transitive) To make slimmer; to reduce in size.

• slim down

slim (plural slims)

1. Alternative form of sling (“type of alcoholic mixed drink”)
   • 2010, Maggie MacKeever, The Baroness of Bow Street:

     Crump, having fortified himself with a bobstick of rum slim, moved cautiously among the crowds who bustled along Fleet Street.

• John Camden Hotten (1873), The Slang Dictionary

• misl, lims, MLIS, MILs, MSIL, SMIL, mils

From Old Norse slím (“slime”).

• IPA^(key): /sliːm/, [sliːˀm]

slim c or n (singular definite slimen or slimet, uncountable)

1. slime
2. mucus

From Middle Dutch slim, slem, slimp, slemp, from Old Dutch *slimb, from Proto-West Germanic *slimb, from Proto-Germanic *slimbaz (“oblique, crooked”), compare German schlimm (“bad”), English slim. The semantic development in Dutch was “physically crooked” → “morally crooked” → “sly, artful” → “clever, intelligent”.

• IPA^(key): /slɪm/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: slim
• Rhymes: -ɪm

slim (comparative slimmer, superlative slimst)

1. intelligent, bright
2. clever, smart
3. (now dialectal, Eastern Dutch) wrong, incorrect, bad

Declension of slim
uninflected	slim
inflected	slimme
comparative	slimmer
		positive	comparative	superlative
predicative/adverbial		slim	slimmer	het slimst het slimste
indefinite	m./f. sing.	slimme	slimmere	slimste
	n. sing.	slim	slimmer	slimste
	plural	slimme	slimmere	slimste
definite		slimme	slimmere	slimste
partitive		slims	slimmers	—

• intelligent
• scherpzinnig
• schrander
• sluw
• gewiekst
• listig

• Berbice Creole Dutch: slem
• Negerhollands: slim, slem
• Skepi Creole Dutch: slam
• → Papiamentu: slim (dated)

From Old Norse slím.

slim n (definite singular slimet, uncountable)

1. mucus, phlegm
2. slime

• slimhinne

• “slim” in The Bokmål Dictionary.
• “slim_2” in Det Norske Akademis ordbok (NAOB).

From Old Norse slím.

slim n (definite singular slimet, uncountable)

1. mucus, phlegm
2. slime

• slimhinne

• “slim” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

From Proto-Germanic *slīmą, from Proto-Indo-European *sley- (“smooth; slick; sticky; slimy”)

• IPA^(key): /sliːm/
• Rhymes: -iːm

slīm n or m

1. slime

If Neuter: Strong a-stem:

If Masculine: Strong a-stem:

• Middle English: slim, slym, slyme, slime
  • Scots: slyme, slime
  • English: slime

slim n (plural slimuri)

1. alternative form of slin

From Old Frisian *slimb, from Proto-West Germanic *slimb, from Proto-Germanic *slimbaz (“askew, sloping, wrong”).

• IPA^(key): /slɪm/

slim

1. bad
2. dire
3. difficult

Inflection of slim
uninflected	slim
inflected	slimme
comparative	slimmer
		positive	comparative	superlative
predicative/adverbial		slim	slimmer	it slimst it slimste
indefinite	c. sing.	slimme	slimmere	slimste
	n. sing.	slim	slimmer	slimste
	plural	slimme	slimmere	slimste
definite		slimme	slimmere	slimste
partitive		slims	slimmers	—

• “slim (II)”, in Wurdboek fan de Fryske taal (in Dutch), 2011