slim

Meaning

Adj

1. Slender; thin.
2. (broadly) Slender; thin.
3. Slender; thin.
4. Slender; thin.
5. Very small, tiny.
6. (Northern-England, Scotland) Bad, of questionable quality; not strongly built, flimsy.
7. (South-Africa, obsolete) Sly, crafty.

Noun

1. A type of cigarette substantially longer and thinner than normal cigarettes.
2. (Ireland, regional) A potato farl.
3. (Africa, East, uncountable) AIDS, or the chronic wasting associated with its later stages.
4. (slang, uncountable) Cocaine.

Verb

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

Noun

Alternative form of sling (“type of alcoholic mixed drink”)

Synonyms

slender

thin

lean

skinny

svelte

slight

delicate

slenderize

lose weight

lissome

slim down

small

fine

reduce

scrawny

narrow

dainty

frail

emaciated

lithe

willowy

melt off

subtle

graceful

nice

gaunt

lanky

tall

become thin

spare

sly

lank

emaciate

sleek

rangy

dicky

fragile

forceless

detract

clean-limbed

flimsy

flagging

macerate

feeble

debilitated

bony

bad

👎

low-grade

little

faint

Translations

schlank

mince

snello

slank

dimagrire

delgado

maigrir

λεπτός

esbelto

magro

dünn

abspecken

abnehmen

prim

Pronounced as (IPA)

/slɪm/

Etymology

Cognate with Dutch: slim

Cognate with Middle High German: slimp

Cognate with German: schlimm

Cognate with Western Frisian: slim

In summary

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”).