TRIMMING • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Trimming

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/trˈɪmɪŋ/ Listen

verb

Trim v. t. (past & past part. trimmed; pres. part. trimming)

1.

To make trim; to put in due order for any purpose; to make right, neat, or pleasing; to adjust. "The hermit trimmed his little fire."

2.

To dress; to decorate; to adorn; to invest; to embellish; as, to trim a hat. "A rotten building newly trimmed over." "I was trimmed in Julia's gown."

3.

To make ready or right by cutting or shortening; to clip or lop; to curtail; as, to trim the hair; to trim a tree. " And trimmed the cheerful lamp."

4.

(Carp.) To dress, as timber; to make smooth.

5.

(Naut.)

(a)

To adjust, as a ship, by arranging the cargo, or disposing the weight of persons or goods, so equally on each side of the center and at each end, that she shall sit well on the water and sail well; as, to trim a ship, or a boat.

(b)

To arrange in due order for sailing; as, to trim the sails.

6.

To rebuke; to reprove; also, to beat. (Colloq.)

To trim in (Carp.), to fit, as a piece of timber, into other work.

To trim up, to dress; to put in order. "I found her trimming up the diadem On her dead mistress."

Trim v. i. To balance; to fluctuate between parties, so as to appear to favor each.

noun

Trimming n.

1.

The act of one who trims.

2.

That which serves to trim, make right or fitting, adjust, ornament, or the like; especially, the necessary or the ornamental appendages, as of a garment; hence, sometimes, the concomitants of a dish; a relish; usually in the plural.

3.

The act of reprimanding or chastisting; as, to give a boy a trimming. (Colloq.)

adjective

Trimming adj. A. from Trim, v. "The Whigs are, essentially, an inefficient, trimming, halfway sort of a party."

Trimming joist (Arch.), a joist into which timber trimmers are framed; a header. See Header.

See images of 'Trimming'

Etymology of 'Trimming'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Trimming" Quotes from Famous Books

... come to love it every acre, every foot, because they have known it from childhood; and I have seen old men, very old, pottering about the orchards and meadows during the hours of voluntary work, and trimming them up here and there, simply because they could not keep away from the place, or keep their hands off the trees and bushes. Sometimes in the long, tender afternoons, we see far up on some pasture slope, groups of girls scattered ...

— Through the Eye of the Needle - A Romance • W. D. Howells

... place of carpet, and the walls were hung with tavern-paper presenting the profiles of Louis XVI. and members of his family, traced among the branches of a weeping willow with other sentimentalities invented by royalism during the Terror,—in spite of his ruins, the chevalier, trimming his beard before a shabby old toilet-table, draped with trumpery lace, exhaled an essence of the eighteenth century. All the libertine graces of his youth reappeared; he seemed to have the wealth of three hundred thousand francs of debt, while his vis-a-vis waited before ...

— The Jealousies of a Country Town • Honore de Balzac

... of the woodcutters was followed immediately by three others, who lost no time in getting down to work. One of them went to help the leader, while the other two devoted themselves to trimming and cutting up the branches of the big birch which they had felled the night before. The Boy wondered where the rest of the pond-people were, and would have liked to consult Jabe about it; but he remembered the keenness of the beaver's ears, and held his tongue securely. It seemed to him probably ...

— The House in the Water - A Book of Animal Stories • Charles G. D. Roberts

... the collar is to rest. The connection of the laterals with the mains, the laying of the larger sizes of tiles so as to form a close joint, the wedging of these larger tiles firmly into their places, and the trimming which is necessary in going around sharp curves, and in putting in the shorter pieces which are needed to fill out the exact length of the drain, demand more skill and judgment than are often found in the common ditcher. Still, any clever workman, who has a careful habit, may easily be taught all ...

— Draining for Profit, and Draining for Health • George E. Waring

... of my son's prudence, I was willing enough to entrust him with this commission; and the next morning I perceived his sisters mighty busy in fitting out Moses for the fair; trimming his hair, brushing his buckles, and cocking his hat with pins. The business of the toilet being over, we had at last the satisfaction of seeing him mounted upon the colt, with a deal box before him to bring home groceries in. He ...

— MacMillan's Reading Books - Book V • Anonymous

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