slim

adj

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”).

1. Slender; thin.

   “Movie stars are usually slim, attractive, and young.”

2. Slender; thin.
3. Slender; thin.
4. Slender; thin.
5. Very small, tiny.

   “I'm afraid your chances are quite slim.”

   “Juries who will convict on the slimmest evidence.”

6. Bad, of questionable quality; not strongly built, flimsy.

   “A slimly-shod lad;”

   “a slimly-made cart.”

7. Sly, crafty.

name

Etymology: * As an English surname, from the noun slime, probably topographic. * As a Native American surname (Navajo), from the English adjective slim, a calque of personal names containing the suffix -tsʼósí (“skinny, slim”), such as Hastiin-tsʼósí (“slim man”), see also Tsosie.

1. A surname.
2. A male given name.

noun

1. Alternative 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.”

verb

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”).

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