Hello, you have come here looking for the meaning of the word slim. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word slim, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say slim in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word slim you have here. The definition of the word slim will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition ofslim, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.
Borrowing from Low German or Dutchslim(“bad, sly, clever”), from Middle Dutchslim(“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.[1]
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."[2]
(of a workforce) Of a reduced size, with the intent of being more efficient.
(of something abstract like a chance or margin)Verysmall, tiny.
I'm afraid your chances are quite slim.
2011 January 15, Saj Chowdhury, “Man City 4 - 3 Wolves”, in BBC:
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.
2003, Charled F. Gilks, “HIV in the Developing World”, in David A. Warrell et al., editors, Oxford Textbook of Medicine, 4th edition, volume 1, →ISBN, page 446:
As in the West, only about 50 per cent of patients with slim fully investigated will have a putative pathogen identified.