brim

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bɹɪm/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪm

Etymology 1

From Middle English brim, from Old English brim (“surf, flood, wave, sea, ocean, water, sea-edge, shore”), from Proto-Germanic *brimą (“turbulence, surge; surf, sea”), from Proto-Germanic *bremaną (“to roar”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰrem- (“to hum, make a noise”). Cognate with Icelandic brim (“sea, surf”), Old English brymm, brym (“sea, waves”), Old English bremman (“to rage, roar”), Dutch brommen (“to hum, buzz”), German brummen (“to hum, drone”), Latin fremō (“roar, growl”, verb), Ancient Greek βρέμω (brémō, “roar, roar like the ocean”, verb).

Noun

brim (plural brims)

1. (obsolete) The sea; ocean; water; flood.

Derived terms

• brimsand

Etymology 2

From Middle English brim, brem, brimme (“margin, edge of a river, lake, or sea”), probably from Middle English brim (“sea, ocean, surf, shore”). See above. Cognate with Dutch berm (“bank, riverbank”), Bavarian Bräm (“border, stripe”), German Bräme, Brame (“border, edge”), Danish bræmme (“border, edge, brim”), Swedish bräm (“border, edge”), Icelandic barmur (“edge, verge, brink”). Related to berm.

Noun

brim (plural brims)

1. An edge or border (originally specifically of the sea or a body of water).
   • 1611, The Holy Bible,  (King James Version), London: Robert Barker, , →OCLC, Joshua 3:15:

     The feet of the priest that bare the ark were dipped in the brim of the water.

   • 1798 (date written), William Wordsworth, “Part First”, in Peter Bell, a Tale in Verse, London: Strahan and Spottiswoode, ; for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, , published 1819, →OCLC, page 19:

     A primrose by a river's brim / A yellow primrose was to him, / And it was nothing more.

2. The topmost rim or lip of a container.

   The toy box was filled to the brim with stuffed animals.

   • 1813, S[amuel] T[aylor] Coleridge, Remorse. A Tragedy, , London: W. Pople, , →OCLC, (please specify the page):

     Saw I that insect on this goblet's brim / I would remove it with an anxious pity.

3. A projecting rim, especially of a hat.

   He turned the back of his brim up stylishly.

Derived terms

• brimful
• halo brim
• to the brim

Translations

Verb

brim (third-person singular simple present brims, present participle brimming, simple past and past participle brimmed)

1. (intransitive) To be full to overflowing.

   The room brimmed with people.

   • 1842, Alfred Tennyson, “The Day-Dream. The Sleeping Palace.”, in Poems. , volume II, London: Edward Moxon, , →OCLC, page 151:

     The beams that thro' the Oriel shine / Make prisms in every carven glass, / And beaker brimm'd with noble wine.

   • 2006 New York Times

     It was a hint of life in a place that still brims with memories of death, a reminder that even five years later, the attacks are not so very distant.

   • 2011 July 3, Piers Newbury, “Wimbledon 2011: Novak Djokovic beats Rafael Nadal in final”, in BBC Sport‎:

     Djokovic, brimming with energy and confidence, needed little encouragement and came haring in to chase down a drop shot in the next game, angling away the backhand to break before turning to his supporters to celebrate.

2. (transitive) To fill to the brim, upper edge, or top.
   • 1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, , →OCLC, (please specify |part=Prologue or Rpilogue, or |canto=I to CXXIX):

     Arrange the board and brim the glass.

Synonyms

• (To be full to overflowing): teem

Derived terms

• brim over

Translations

Etymology 3

Either from breme, or directly from Old English bremman (“to roar, rage”) (though not attested in Middle English).

Verb

brim (third-person singular simple present brims, present participle brimming, simple past and past participle brimmed)

1. Of pigs: to be in heat, to rut.

Etymology 4

See breme.

Adjective

brim (comparative more brim, superlative most brim)

1. (obsolete) Fierce; sharp; cold.
   • H.P. Lovecraft (1937) “The Thing on the Doorstep”, in The Rats in the Walls and Other Stories, Richmond: Alma Classics, published 2015, →ISBN, page 339: “There was, I thought, a trace of very profound and very genuine irony in the timbre – not the flashy, meaninglessly jaunty pseudo-irony of the callow “sophisticate,” which Derby had habitually affected, but something brim, basic, pervasive and potentially evil.”

Etymology 5

From brimstone.

Noun

brim (plural brims)

1. (UK, obsolete, slang) A violent irascible woman.
   • 1799, Whim of the Day

     She's a vixen, she's a brim, zounds! she's all that is bad.

Anagrams

• IBMR, IRBM

Indonesian

Etymology

From English brim.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key):
• Hyphenation: brim

Noun

brim (first-person possessive brimku, second-person possessive brimmu, third-person possessive brimnya)

1. brim: a projecting rim of a hat.

Further reading

• “brim” in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia, Jakarta: Language Development and Fostering Agency — Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic Indonesia, 2016.

Maltese

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /briːm/
• Rhymes: -iːm

Noun

brim m

1. verbal noun of baram

Old English

Etymology

From Proto-Germanic *brimą.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /brim/

Noun

brim n

1. (poetic) the edge of the sea or a body of water
2. (poetic) surf; the surface of the sea
3. (poetic) sea, ocean, water

Declension

Derived terms

• brimċeald (“cold as the sea”)
• brimhenġest (“ship”)
• brimlīþend (“sailor”)
• brimmann (“sailor”)
• brimwudu (“ship”)

Old Norse

Etymology

From Proto-Germanic *brimą.

Noun

brim n

1. (poetic) surf; the surface of the sea
2. (poetic) sea, ocean, water

Declension

References

• “brim”, in Geir T. Zoëga (1910) A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic, Oxford: Clarendon Press