slim

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”).

adj

1. Slender, thin.
   1. (of a person or a person's build) Slender in an attractive way.
      Movie stars are usually slim, attractive, and young.
   2. (by extension, of clothing) Designed to make the wearer appear slim.
   3. (of an object) Long and narrow.
   4. (of a workforce) Of a reduced size, with the intent of being more efficient.
2. (of something abstract like a chance or margin) Very small, tiny.
   I'm afraid your chances are quite slim.
   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. January 15, 2011, Saj Chowdhury, “Man City 4 - 3 Wolves”, in BBC
3. (rural, Northern England, Scotland) Bad, of questionable quality; not strongly built, flimsy.
   A slimly-shod lad; a slimly-made cart.
4. (South Africa, obsolete in UK) Sly, crafty.

noun

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.
   As in the West, only about 50 per cent of patients with slim fully investigated will have a putative pathogen identified. 2003, Charled F. Gilks, “HIV in the Developing World”, in David A. Warrell et al., editors, Oxford Textbook of Medicine, 4th edition, volume 1, page 446
4. (slang, uncountable) Cocaine.

verb

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