Forms: 6– trim; also 6 Sc. trume, trvme; trym, trymme, tryme; 6–7 trimme, 7 trimm, trimn. [History obscure. OE. had an adj. trum, ‘firm, stable, strong, sound, robust’ (not known in the cognate langs.); whence also in prehistoric time the vb. *trum-jan, OE. trymman, TRIM v. No example of trum is known after OE. times, but the negatives untrum infirm and untrumnesse infirmity survived to c. 1200–25. Afterwards, like TRIM v., the adj. disappears till after 1500. The modern adj. trim does not answer in form, nor directly in sense, to trum; but in both it goes with the verb. It would appear therefore to be a deriv. of the verb (or, if both came down in ME., to have been conformed to the verb).]
In many early quotations it is difficult or impossible to infer the exact shade of meaning intended. Cf. TRIG a.
1. In good condition or order; well prepared, furnished, or equipped; fit, competent, proper, suitable; hence, sound, good, excellent, fine, beautiful. (Often a vague term of approval.)
1503–13. [implied in TRIMLY adv. 1].
c. 1530. H. Rhodes, Bk. Nurture, 504. Better is it to beate a prowde man then for to rebuke him, For he thinkes in his owne conceyte he is wyse and very trim.
1567. Drant, Horace, Art Poetry, A iv. For the sage ryghte seriouse wordes be trim.
1577. Holinshed, Chron., II. 992/2. xl great carreuelles, and thirtene trymme Barques throughly furnished and appoynted with good mariners and men of warre.
1583. Leg. Bp. St. Androis, 879. Ane burges man … Having a trvme schop in the toun.
a. 1585. Polwart, Flyting w. Montgomerie, 551 (Harl. MS.). The blaired bucke and bystour … Hes right trume [v.r. trim] teathe, somwhat sett in a thrawe.
1588. Shaks., Tit. A., V. i. 96. ’Twas trim sport for them that had the doing of it.
1590. Spenser, F. Q., III. i. 36. Fragrant violets, and Paunces trim. Ibid., 40. Sweet birdes … Ay caroling of love and jollity, That wonder was to heare their trim consort.
1636. James, Iter Lanc. (Chetham Soc.), 6. Gilbert Stone, being for ye time a trimme man of his penne.
1725. Pope, Odyss., IV. 1032. The vessel rides,… In all her tackle trim to quit the shore.
1817. Byron, Beppo, xcvi. The ship was trim.
† b. (?) Firm. (But perh. sense 1.) Obs.
1549. Coverdale, etc., Erasm. Par. Jas. i. 28. It taketh no rote in a briery place, ne in marice, nether in the sande … but it requireth a pure, a trymme, and a substaunciall grounde.
1565. W. Allen, in Fulke, Confut. Purg. (1577), 449. Doe you not see here a trimme faith and a substantiall?
2. Neatly or smartly made, prepared, or arranged; elegantly or finely arrayed, dressed, or ‘got up’; having a neat, spruce, or tidy appearance or effect. a. Of things: chiefly in sense ‘neat, properly made and properly kept’; † formerly sometimes of dress, smart, pretty, beautiful.
c. 1521. J. Clerk to Wolsey, in Ellis, Orig. Lett., Ser. III. I. 258. ij bokys … coverd with clothe off gold … the porteur, fascio[un] and tryme deckyng of the said bokis.
1542. Udall, Erasm. Apoph., 246 b. Fillyng vp as trymme as a trencher ye space that stood voide.
1567. Gude & Godlie B. (S.T.S.), 37. Ze [= ȝe] set on schone vpone his feit, The quhilk are trim and wounder meit.
1574. trans. Marlorat’s Apocalips, 37. This place of Paradise was better furnished and trimmer than other places.
1675. Hobbes, Odyssey, 232. I him gave a purple double vest, A sword, and coat edged with fringes trim.
1717. Berkeley, Tour Italy, Wks. 1871, IV. 537. Laurel hedges, but not so trim as ours.
1740. Somerville, Hobbinol, I. 150. See with what Pomp The gaudy Bands advance in trim Array.
1771. Pennant, Tour Scotl. in 1769, 31. The gardens are … trim to the highest degree.
1789. Mme. D’Arblay, Diary, 21 Aug. Captain Molloy’s large boat … was very trim and neat, and had all its rowers new dressed.
1840. Dickens, Barn. Rudge, xxiii. Mr. Chester … completely attired … in the trimmest fashion of the day.
1849. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., ii. I. 201. The large and stately mansions, the trim villas.
1886. Ruskin, Præterita, I. v. 168. The houses on each side with trim stone pathways up to them.
b. Of persons (rarely animals): Neat, ‘trig,’ comely; neatly, smartly, or † finely dressed or adorned.
1548. Udall, etc., Erasm. Par. Matt. vii. 50. The swyne is not the trymmer for the preciouse stones.
1552. Huloet, Trymme, bellulus, a, um; loke in trycke…. Trymme wenche gorgiously decked, phalerata fœmina.
1650. Bulwer, Anthropomet., 155. These paintings … whereby the said women think themselves more trim and beautiful.
1681. W. Robertson, Phraseol. Gen., 1247/1. A very trim woman, cultissima fœmina.
1877. Mar. M. Grant, Sun-maid, ii. He was rested from his long journey, trim, brushed, and polished.
1888. Anna K. Green, Behind Closed Doors, iv. A trim and quiet girl came tripping to the door.
† c. ‘Tight’ (?), elegantly shaped, well-made, handsome, good-looking. Obs.
1568. T. Howell, Newe Sonets (1879), 146. So streight, so square, so trym was he, So fayre of forme, so wyse, so sage.
1578. Lyte, Dodoens, II. i. 148. Iupiter … turned her into a trim heaffer.
1600. J. Pory, trans. Leo’s Africa, VIII. 304. In the day-time he shall see none but trim and beautifull women.
1635. Brome, Sparagus Gard., II. ii. I warrant you, is he a trim youth?
1649. G. Daniel, Trinarch., Rich. II., lxxviii. The Trimmest fellowes of this Regiment Envie’d the Gentry.
† 3. In ironical use: cf. ‘fine,’ ‘nice,’ ‘pretty,’ in similar use. Obs.
1569. J. Sanford, trans. Agrippa’s Van. Artes, 14 b. They … haue spoken of nothinge but trimme trifles.
1573. G. Harvey, Letter-Bk. (Camden), 9. Here was stuf gud plenti to furnish up a trim tragedi.
1581. J. Bell, Haddon’s Answ. Osor., 66. Hath hee not made a trimme speake agaynst us?
a. 1586. Sidney, Arcadia (1622), 370. A trim purchase you haue made of your owne shame.
1611. Beaum. & Fl., Maid’s Trag., II. ii. And there’s Another of ’em, a trim cheating souldier, I’le maul that Rascal.
1634. Heywood & Brome, Witches Lanc., III. Wks. 1874, IV. 217. O you are a trim mother are you not?
1680. Otway, Caius Marius, IV. i. News quoth a? Trim News truly.
4. In parasynthetic combinations.
1873. B. Harte, Fiddletown, etc., D. Varden, 87. Trim-bodiced, bright-eyed, roguish-lipped.
1840. Dickens, Old C. Shop, xv. Then came the trim-hedged fields on either hand.
B. adv. † 1. = TRIMLY 1. Obs.
c. 1540. J. Redford, Mor. Play Wit and Sc. (Shaks. Soc.), 37. His toong servth him now trym.
1549–62. Sternhold & H., Ps. xxxv. 26. Let not their hartes rejoyce and cry, There, there, this geare goeth trim.
1573. Tusser, Husb. (1878), 11. He plainly taught how good from naught may trim be tride.
c. 1613. Middleton, No Wit like Woman’s, V. i. Now the bells they go trim, they go trim.
2. = TRIMLY 2.
1529. Supplic. to King (E.E.T.S.), 49. Tryme decked horses, to ryde … lyke a lorde.
1590. Spenser, F. Q., II. vi. 2. A litle Gondelay, bedecked trim With boughes and arbours woven cunningly.
1594, 1615. Trick and trim [see TRICK adv. 2].
1742. Collins, Ode Manners, 17. Like a bride, so trim array’d.
3. Comb., as trim-cut, -dressed, -kept, etc., adjs.
1813. Scott, Trierm., II. v. Sick of flower and trim-dress’d tree, Long for rough glades, and forest free.
1861. Thackeray, Four Georges, i. (1862), 23. The trim-cut forest vistas.
1873. Miss Broughton, Nancy, III. 9. The little trim-swept drive.
1889. J. K. Jerome, Three Men in Boat, 77. The trim-kept villas on the other side.
