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dim

adj
/dɪm/

Etymology

From Middle English dim, dym, from Old English dim, dimm (“dim, dark, gloomy; wretched, grievous, sad, unhappy”), from Proto-West Germanic *dimm, from Proto-Germanic *dimmaz (“dark”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰem- (“to whisk, smoke; obscure”). Compare Faroese dimmur (“dark”), Icelandic dimmur (“dark”) and dimma (“darkness”).

  1. derived from *dʰem-✻
  2. derived from *dimmaz✻
  3. derived from *dimm✻
  4. derived from dim
  5. derived from dim

Definitions

  1. Not bright or colorful.

    • The lighting was too dim for me to make out his facial features.
    • that sustaining Love / Which, through the web of being blindly wove / By man and beast and earth and air and sea, / Burns bright or dim

  2. Not smart or intelligent.

    • He may be a bit dim, but he's not entirely stupid.

  3. Indistinct, hazy or unclear.

    • His vision grew dimmer as he aged.
  4. ›+ 10 more definitions

    1. Disapproving, unfavorable

      Disapproving, unfavorable: rarely used outside the phrase take a dim view of.

    2. Dimness.

      • All about me the Red Weed clambered among the ruins, writhing to get above me in the dim. Night, the Mother of Fear and Mystery, was coming upon me.

    3. To make something less bright.

      • He dimmed the lights and put on soft music.

    4. To become darker.

      • The lights dimmed briefly when the air conditioning was turned on.

    5. To render dim, obscure, or dark

      To render dim, obscure, or dark; to make less bright or distinct.

      • a king among his courtiers,[…] who out to dim the lustre of all his attendants
      • Now ſet the ſun, and twilight dimm'd the ways, […]

    6. To deprive of distinct vision

      To deprive of distinct vision; to hinder from seeing clearly, either by dazzling or clouding the eyes; to darken the senses or understanding of.

      • And with our Sun-bright armour as we march, Weel chaſe the Starrs from heauen, and dim their eies That ſtand and muſe at our admyred armes.
      • Her starry eyes were dimm'd with streaming tears.

    7. To diminish, dull, or curtail.

      • All these setbacks had started to dim the hopes of the students.
      • Nothing will dim their spirit of resilience.
      • A glut might dim the outlook for grain futures.

    8. Clipping of diminished.

    9. A male given name (from Bashkir Дим) .

    10. vocative singular of Ди́ма (Díma)(•colloquial)

The neighborhood

Derived

dim and distant, dimbo, dim bulb, dim-headed, dim-lit, dimly, dimmish, dimmity, dimmy, dim-sighted, dimsome, dimwit, dim-witted → dim-wittedness, nice-but-dim, autodimming, bedim, dimmable, dimmer, dim out, fordim, nondimmable, undimmable, undimmed, undimming

Vish — recursive loop

A definitional loop anchored at dim. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.

01dim02colorful03distinctive04typical05expected06arrive07fame08rumour09indistinct

A definitional loop anchored at dim. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.

9 hops · closes at dim

curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA