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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

slim.

Slender; thin.

4 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

adj/ˈslɪm/[ˈslɪm]
  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.

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

    Northern-England · Scotland
    A slimly-shod lad;
    a slimly-made cart.
  7. Sly, crafty.

    South-Africa · obsolete
Where this word comes from

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/ˈslɪm/[ˈslɪm]
  1. A type of cigarette substantially longer and thinner than normal cigarettes.

    countable · uncountable
    I only smoke slims.
  2. A potato farl.

    Ireland · countable · regional · uncountable
  3. AIDS, or the chronic wasting associated with its later stages.

    Africa · East · uncountable
  4. Cocaine.

    slang · uncountable
Where this word comes from

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”).

verb/ˈslɪm/[ˈslɪm]
  1. To lose weight in order to achieve slimness.

    intransitive
  2. To make slimmer; to reduce in size.

    transitive
Where this word comes from

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/ˈslɪm/[ˈslɪm]
  1. Alternative form of sling (“type of alcoholic mixed drink”)

    alt-of · alternative
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.