different between slim vs scarce

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

Alternative forms

• scarse (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English scarce, skarce, scarse, scars, from Old Northern French scars, escars ("sparing, niggard, parsimonious, miserly, poor"; > French échars, Medieval Latin scarsus (“diminished, reduced”)), of uncertain origin. One theory is that it derives originally from a Late Latin *scarpsus, *excarpsus, a participle form of *excarpere (“take out”), from Latin ex- + carpere; yet the sense evolution is difficult to trace. Compare also Middle Dutch schaers (“sparing, niggard”), Middle Dutch schaers (“a pair of shears, plowshare”), scheeren (“to shear”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?sk??s/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?sk??s/

Adjective

scarce (comparative scarcer, superlative scarcest)

1. Uncommon, rare; difficult to find; insufficient to meet a demand.

   • You tell him silver is scarcer now in England, and therefore risen in value one fifth.
2. (archaic) Scantily supplied (with); deficient (in); used with of.

Synonyms

• (uncommon, rare): geason, infrequent, raresome; see also Thesaurus:rare

Derived terms

Related terms

• scarcity

Translations

Adverb

scarce (not comparable)

1. (now literary, archaic) Scarcely, only just.
   • 1898, J. Meade Falkner, Moonfleet Chapter 4:

     Yet had I scarce set foot in the passage when I stopped, remembering how once already this same evening I had played the coward, and run home scared with my own fears.

   • 1906, Alfred Noyes, The Highwayman:

     He rose upright in the stirrups; he scarce could reach her hand,

     But she loosened her hair i' the casement! His face burnt like a brand

     As the black cascade of perfume came tumbling over his breast;

     And he kissed its waves in the moonlight,

     (Oh, sweet, black waves in the moonlight!)

   • 1931, William Faulkner, Sanctuary, Vintage 1993, p. 122:

     Upon the barred and slitted wall the splotched shadow of the heaven tree shuddered and pulsed monstrously in scarce any wind.

   • 1969, John Cleese, Monty Python's Flying Circus:

     Well, it's scarce the replacement then, is it?

Anagrams

• Craces, arcsec

Middle English

Noun

scarce

1. Alternative form of sarse