slim

Meaning

Adj

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

Noun

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

Verb

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

Concepts

slim

slender

thin

lean

skinny

slight

svelte

delicate

slenderize

lose weight

lissome

slim down

fine

small

narrow

dainty

reduce

scrawny

frail

subtle

willowy

emaciated

graceful

lithe

melt off

nice

become thin

sleek

gaunt

rangy

sly

lanky

emaciate

lank

spare

tall

slender-bodied

pass with no objection

sensitive

bony

not thick

gracile

diet

symmetrical

well-disposed

well-proportioned

well-shaped

clean-limbed

jimp

cunning

slippy

not thin not fat

macerate

meager

meagre

peaked

raw boned

scraggly

slab sided

exquisite

flimsy

gossamery

refined

sleazy

slimsy

subtile

tactful

tenuous

ticklish

waspish

attenuate

lightsome

lissom

adulterate

inferior

low-grade

dapper

wither

little

adynamic

bad

debilitated

dicky

dull

enervated

faint

feeble

flagging

forceless

fragile

languid

light

poor

powerless

soft

subduable

subjugable

unnerved

weak

slim-bodied

jejune

unfattened

worn

minuscule

minute

nonexistent

miniscule

make thin

beautiful

shapely

elegant

neat

leery

sharp

reedy

cutdown

detract

become small

illness

Pronounced as (IPA)

/slɪm/

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”).