Trim

How to spell trim

4 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce trim

What does trim mean?

1. verbTo cut away a small amount of something to make it neat or to reduce it.
2. adjectiveNeat, slim, and in good order.
3. nounDecorative edging or fittings, or the general condition of something.

Trim in a sentence

• verb

  The barber offered to trim his fringe before the interview.

• adjective

  The garden looked trim after a full weekend of weeding.

• noun

  The new car came with chrome trim along the doors.

• verb

  The finance team had to trim the budget by ten percent.

• adjective

  He stayed trim and fit by cycling to work each day.

• noun

  She chose a navy coat with white trim around the collar.

Where does trim come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

The word goes back to the Old English verb trymman or trymian, which meant to make firm, to strengthen, or to set in good order. That sense of putting something into proper shape ran quietly through the Middle English period, and the modern spelling trim surfaces clearly in the early 1500s, when it appears both as a verb for tidying or cutting back and as an adjective for something neat and well prepared. Sailors gave the word much of its later life: to trim a ship was to balance its cargo and set its sails correctly, which is why we still speak of being 'in good trim' or trimming the sails. From that nautical idea of fine adjustment came the everyday meanings of cutting hair or hedges to a tidy length and of the decorative trim added to clothes and cars. Because it is a short native word with a single clear vowel, its spelling has stayed remarkably stable and gives modern writers very little trouble.

How the word is built

• trim (single root, from Old English trymman 'to make firm, arrange')