slim

pronunciation

How to pronounce slim in British English: UK [slɪm]word uk audio image

How to pronounce slim in American English: US [slɪm] word us audio image

  • Verb:
    take off weight
  • Adjective:
    being of delicate or slender build
    small in quantity

Word Origin

slim
slim: [17] Slim is now quite an upbeat word, but that is a comparatively new departure, for historically it has been neutral if not downright derogatory. It was borrowed from Dutch slim ‘small, inferior’, which went back via Middle Dutch slim ‘slanting, bad’ to a prehistoric Germanic *slimbaz ‘oblique, crooked’ (source also of German schlimm ‘bad’). It may be distantly related to Latvian slīps ‘crooked, steep’.
slim (adj.)
1650s, "thin, slight, slender," from Dutch slim "bad, sly, clever," from Middle Dutch slim "bad, crooked," from Proto-Germanic *slembaz "oblique, crooked" (cognates: Middle High German slimp "slanting, awry," German schlimm "bad, cunning, unwell"). In English 17c. also sometimes with a sense "sly, cunning, crafty." Related: Slimly; slimness. With obsolete extended adjectival forms Slimsy "flimsy, unsubstantial" (1845); slimikin "small and slender" (1745). Slim Jim attested from 1887 in sense of "very thin person;" from 1902 as a type of slender cigar; from 1975 as a brand of meat snack.
slim (v.)
1808, "to scamp one's work, do carelessly or superficially," from slim (adj.). Meaning "to make slim" (a garment, etc.) is from 1862; meaning "reduce (one's) weight" is from 1930. Related: Slimmed; slimming.

Synonym

Antonym

adj.

stout