Other forms: trimmed, trimming, trims
To trim something is to cut a little off it so it looks neat. Trimming a fringe, trimming the fat off a chop, trimming the hedge back level with the fence.
The size of the cut is the whole point: trim a bit, cut a lot. That is why budgets get trimmed too — trim costs, trim the schedule, trim two minutes off a race. As a noun, a trim is what you ask for at the barber's, and it is also the decorative edging on things: a coat with fur trim, chrome trim on an old car. As an adjective it means neat and in good shape — a trim garden, a trim figure. Sailing keeps its own uses: you trim the sails to suit the wind, and a boat in trim is properly balanced.
1verbtrimTo cut small amounts off something to make it neat.
“He trimmed the hedge on Saturday morning.”
2verbpareTo reduce something slightly.
“The airline trimmed its winter schedule.”
3nounhairA small cut to tidy the hair.
“She's booked in for a trim on Friday.”
4noundecorativeDecorative edging on clothes, furniture or a vehicle.
“The jacket has a red trim along the collar.”
5adjectivegoodNeat, tidy and in good shape.
“He stayed trim well into his seventies.”
Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.
Old English trymman meant 'to make firm; strengthen', from Proto-Germanic *trumjaną, 'to make fast; strengthen'. Cutting came much later. The oldest sense is putting a thing in good order — which is why a boat can be trim, and why a trim tidies something rather than removing it.
Proto-Germanic
*trumjaną — to make fast; strengthen
Proto-West Germanic
*trummjan
Old English
trymman — to make firm; strengthen
Middle English
trimen
English, today
trim
From Middle English trimen, trymen, trumen, from Old English trymman (“to make firm; strengthen”), from Proto-West Germanic trummjan, from Proto-Germanic trumjaną (“to make fast; strengthen”), from Proto-Germanic trumaz (“firm; strong; sound”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA