shim – Wiktionary

English[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Etymology 1[edit]

Unknown; from Kent.^[1][2] Initially a bit of iron connected to a plow; sense of “skinny piece of wooden” from 1723, sense of “skinny piece of fabric used for alignment or assist” from 1860.

Noun[edit]

shim (plural shims)

1. A wedge.
2. A skinny piece of fabric, typically tapered, used for alignment or assist.
   • 2016 January 30, Jeff Howell, “Swinging doorways: it isn’t open and shut”, in The Every day Telegraph (Property), web page 15:

     The second adjustment [to a door that keeps swinging open] would require the screws to be loosened, and a shim or packing piece pushed behind the hinge to convey it into line.

3. (computing) A small library that transparently intercepts and modifies calls to an API, often for compatibility functions.
   • 2010, Russell Smith, Least Privilege Safety for Home windows 7, Vista and XP

     Shims intercept Win32 API calls from legacy purposes, as outlined by system directors, after which modify the decision earlier than passing the code to Home windows for execution.

4. A form of shallow plow utilized in tillage to interrupt the bottom and clear it of weeds.
5. A small metallic system used to choose open a lock.

Translations[edit]

Verb[edit]

shim (third-person singular easy current shims, current participle shimming, easy previous and previous participle shimmed)

1. To suit a number of shims to a bit of equipment.
2. To regulate one thing through the use of shims.
3. (computing, transitive) To intercept and modify calls to (an API), often for compatibility functions.

Translations[edit]

Etymology 2[edit]

Mix of she +‎ him.

Noun[edit]

shim (plural shims)

1. (casual, usually derogatory) A transsexual particular person, particularly a trans lady; (loosely) a drag queen or transvestite.

   Synonym: he-she (derogatory)

   • 1998, Hobart Pupil Affiliation, The Seneca evaluation:

     He — or “Shim” (she/him), as movie director John Waters referred to as the actor Divine — was as a lot a paradoxical as a perverse fellow.

   • 1995, The Advocate – Might 30, 1995 – Web page 11:

     “We name him shim— quick for ‘she-him.’

2. (casual, usually derogatory) An individual characterised by each female and male traits, or by ambiguous male-female traits; a hermaphrodite.
   • 2009, Laurie Notaro, The Fool Lady and the Flaming Tantrum of Demise: Reflections on Revenge, Germophobia, and Laser Hair Elimination, Ballantine Books (→ISBN), web page 89:

     […] that I used to be a hermaphrodite, and that issues would in all probability be getting a lot, a lot worse as different “components” of me started to develop manly and I made the total transformation right into a “shim.”

Translations[edit]

References[edit]

Anagrams[edit]

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Noun[edit]

shim

1. eye

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Noun[edit]

shim (plural shimlar)

1. pants

Declension[edit]