different between slim vs descend

English

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium. Particularly: “Details on sense development -- how did we get from "bad" to "favorably thin"?”)Borrowing from Dutch slim (“bad, sly, clever”), from Middle Dutch slim (“bad, crooked”), from Old Dutch *slimb, from Proto-Germanic *slimbaz (“oblique, crooked”). Compare Dutch slim (“smart, clever, crafty”) Middle High German slimp (“slanting, awry”), German schlimm (“bad”), West Frisian slim (“bad, dire”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sl?m/
• Rhymes: -?m

Adjective

slim (comparative slimmer, superlative slimmest)

1. Slender, thin.
   1. (of a person or a person's build) Slender in an attractive way.

      Movie stars are usually slim, attractive, and young.

   2. (by extension, of clothing) Designed to make the wearer appear slim.
   3. (of an object) Long and narrow.
   4. (of a workforce) Of a reduced size, with the intent of being more efficient.
2. (of something abstract like a chance or margin) Very small, tiny.

   I'm afraid your chances are quite slim.
3. (rural, Northern England, Scotland) Bad, of questionable quality; not strongly built, flimsy.

4. (South Africa, obsolete in Britain) Sly, crafty.

Synonyms

• (slender in an attractive way.): lithe, svelte, willowy; see also Thesaurus:slender
• (clothing):
• (long and narrow): fine, stalky, sticklike, thin, virgate
• (reduced workforce):
• (tiny; of something abstract): infinitesimal, marginal; see also Thesaurus:tiny
• (of questionable quality): flimsy, lousy, shoddy; see also Thesaurus:low-quality
• (crafty): cunning, frood; see also Thesaurus:wily

Translations

References

• The Dictionary of the Scots Language

Noun

slim (plural slims)

1. A type of cigarette substantially longer and thinner than normal cigarettes.

   I only smoke slims.

2. (Ireland, regional) A potato farl.
3. (East Africa, uncountable) AIDS, or the chronic wasting associated with its later stages.
4. (slang, uncountable) Cocaine.

Alternative forms

• (AIDS): Slim

Verb

slim (third-person singular simple present slims, present participle slimming, simple past and past participle slimmed)

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

Translations

Anagrams

• MILs, MLIS, MSIL, SMIL, mils, misl

Danish

Etymology

From Old Norse slím (“slime”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sli?m/, [sli??m]

Noun

slim c or n (singular definite slimen or slimet, uncountable)

1. slime
2. mucus

Dutch

Etymology

From Middle Dutch slim, slem, slimp, slemp, from Old Dutch *slimb, from Proto-Germanic *slimbaz (“oblique, crooked”), compare German schlimm (“bad”), English slim.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sl?m/
• Hyphenation: slim
• Rhymes: -?m

Adjective

slim (comparative slimmer, superlative slimst)

1. intelligent, bright
2. clever, smart
3. (now dialectal, Eastern Dutch) wrong, incorrect, bad

Inflection

Synonyms

• intelligent
• scherpzinnig
• schrander
• sluw

Derived terms

• slimheid
• slimmerd
• slimmerik
• slimmigheid

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

From Old Norse slím

Noun

slim n (definite singular slimet, uncountable)

1. mucus, phlegm
2. slime

Derived terms

• slimhinne

References

• “slim” in The Bokmål Dictionary.
• “slim_2” in Det Norske Akademis ordbok (NAOB).

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology

From Old Norse slím

Noun

slim n (definite singular slimet, uncountable)

1. mucus, phlegm
2. slime

Derived terms

• slimhinne

References

• “slim” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

West Frisian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sl?m/

Adjective

slim

1. bad
2. dire
3. difficult

Inflection

Further reading

• “slim (II)”, in Wurdboek fan de Fryske taal (in Dutch), 2011

English

Etymology

From Middle English decenden, borrowed from Old French descendre, from Latin descendere, past participle descensus (“to come down, go down, fall, sink”), from de- (“down”) + scandere (“to climb”). See scan, scandent. Compare ascend, condescend, transcend.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /d??s?nd/
• Hyphenation (US): de?scend; (UK): des?cend
• Rhymes: -?nd

Verb

descend (third-person singular simple present descends, present participle descending, simple past and past participle descended)

1. (intransitive) To pass from a higher to a lower place; to move downwards; to come or go down in any way, for example by falling, flowing, walking, climbing etc.
   • 2002, John Griesemer, No One Thinks of Greenland: A Novel

     Rudy felt a gust of fear rise in his chest, and he looked again in the mirror, but the hangar and stable were now beyond the rise, out of sight, he was descending so fast.

   • 1655, Thomas Fuller, The History of the University of Cambridge: From the Conquest to the Year 1634

   We will here descend to matters of later date.

   • 1611, King James Version, Matthew vii. 25.

   The rain descended, and the floods came.

2. (intransitive, poetic) To enter mentally; to retire.

   • [He] with holiest meditations fed, Into himself descended.

3. (intransitive, with on or upon) To make an attack, or incursion, as if from a vantage ground; to come suddenly and with violence.
   • 2013, Deltrice Alfred Grossmith, Arctic Warriors: A Personal Account of Convoy PQ18

     more aircraft descending on us than had done during previous visits from the snoopers in their usual ones and twos.

   • 1726, Alexander Pope, Odyssey

   And on the suitors let thy wrath descend.

4. (intransitive) To come down to a lower, less fortunate, humbler, less virtuous, or worse, state or rank; to lower or abase oneself
   • August 25, 1759, Samuel Johnson, The Idler No. 71

     He […] began to descend to familiar questions, endeavouring to accommodate his discourse to the grossness of rustic understandings.

5. (intransitive) To pass from the more general or important to the specific or less important matters to be considered.
6. (intransitive) To come down, as from a source, original, or stock
7. to be derived (from)
8. to proceed by generation or by transmission; to happen by inheritance.

9. (intransitive, astronomy) To move toward the south, or to the southward.
10. (intransitive, music) To fall in pitch; to pass from a higher to a lower tone.
11. (transitive) To go down upon or along; to pass from a higher to a lower part of

Synonyms

• go down

Antonyms

• ascend
• go up

Derived terms

• descender

Related terms

• descent

Translations

Anagrams

• scended

French

Verb

descend

1. third-person singular present indicative of descendre