1548 T. Cooper Bibliotheca Eliotæ (rev. ed.) Longurio, -onis, a longe slymme.

1589 W. Warner Albions Eng. (new ed.) vi. xxxi. 136 Lesse mannerd, and worse gated than this Saturns-Eeue-made Slim, God neuer made.

1611 R. Cotgrave Dict. French & Eng. Tongues Couille,..a heartlesse, faint-hearted, or white-liuered slimme.

1611 R. Cotgrave Dict. French & Eng. Tongues Longue eschine, a luske, slimme, longbacke, or slowbacke.

1977 Gay News 7 Apr. 8/1 Barrie announced his intention to go on a sponsored ‘slim’. People were asked to sign pledge forms to give a certain amount of money for every pound Barrie would lose between Cambridge and Oxford.

1977 Navy News Aug. 30/6 Bill Skilliter went on a sponsored slim and lost 3st.

1668 H. More Divine Dialogues (1713) i. xxx. 65 He does indeed say so, but by way of a slim jear to their ignorance.

a1680 J. Glanvill Saducismus Triumphatus (1681) i. 179 It cannot be said by any man in his wits, unless by way of sport or some slim jest.

1674 J. Ray N. Countrey Words in Coll. Eng. Words 43 Slim... It's a word generally used in the same sence with Sly.

1703 R. Thoresby Let. 27 Apr. in J. Ray Corr. (1848) 427 A slim customer.

1768 A. Ross Rock & Wee Pickle Tow in Fortunate Shepherdess 130 She was never ca'd chancy, but canny an' slim.

1848 J. R. Lowell Biglow Papers 1st Ser. ix. 127 I wish I may be cust, Ef Bellers wuzn't slim enough to say he wouldn't trust!

1899 Times 26 Oct. 5/2 The issue of the proclamation by the Boers..is regarded..as a ‘slim’ (crafty) move on the enemy's part.

1847 Paddiana I. 219 His share of the slim-cake alone would have furnished him with indigestion for a month.

1894 Blackwood's Edinb. Mag. Sept. 318 Where we found tea and Irish slim-cakes provided for us.

1953 World Oil June 112/3 Analysis of areas favorable and unfavorable to slim hole drilling may have been influenced by the performance of available bits in the various types of formations encountered.

1959 Wall St. Jrnl. 20 July 15/3 ‘Slim-hole’ drilling..employs conventional equipment—but less of it. The idea is to substitute small pipe and other tinier tools to do a job historically done by larger, more costly units.

1972 L. M. Harris Introd. Deepwater Floating Drilling Operations iii. 16 Some companies use slim-hole designs and special-clearance couplings on casings.

1975 A. P. Szilas Production & Transport of Oil & Gas iv. 345 (caption) Bottom-hole arrangements for the sucker-rod pumping of slim holes.

1920 E. Wallace Daffodil Myst. iii. 23 Thornton Lyne was a store-keeper, a Bachelor of Arts,..and the author of a slim volume.

1979 Church Times 1 June 5/3 Friends will..welcome a slim volume of his poems that has come out.

1953 R. Lehmann Echoing Grove 242 The accent, I gather, is on culture—lots of slim vols in the house now.

1970 Which? Sept. 272/2 Pricewise they want it slim. When you get there they're standing over you wanting a Rolls-Royce job.

1981 Times 31 July 20/3 Aeronautical & General tumbled a further 18p to 340p,..now 60p slimmer than a week ago.

1976 Birmingham Post 16 Dec. 6/4 A slimmer public service was inevitable.

1989 Forbes 20 Mar. 129/1 Unum has become slimmer and more focused since..he..cut $25 million out of annual expenses.

1812 W. Thom Amusem. Solitary Hours 35 in Eng. Dial. Dict. Bids them mind their meat and wark, And not to slim their time away.

1808 J. Jamieson Etymol. Dict. Sc. Lang. (at cited word) In the very same sense we say, To slim o'er, to do one's work in a careless and insufficient way.

1847 J. W. Carlyle Lett. I. 393 Postie had also helped to beat the carpets, considering that Eaves was rather slimming them.

1854 A. E. Baker Gloss. Northants. Words II. 246 A shoemaker, who brought his apprentice up before the magistrates, complained that ‘he slimmed his work so, he could put up with it no longer’.

1930 Punch 2 Apr. 366/2 The hostess ate hardly any. She is slimming.

1931 J. Galsworthy Maid in Waiting xvi Em's still slimming—but we can all dine at the Coffee House.

1933 Oxf. Times 3 Feb. 6/6 Women who have slimmed at great personal inconvenience, and in some cases..with disastrous results.

1937 L. C. Douglas Forgive us our Trespasses xiii. 254 As the minutes slimmed down to four, three, two, Dinny found his heart beating rapidly.

1963 ‘E. McBain’ Ten Plus One xii. 158 I was too fat... But the funny part was, once I slimmed down, I didn't want to be an actor any more.

1975 G. Howell In Vogue 1/2 ‘Dressing on a war income’ was a regular feature [in British Vogue],..recommending that women should slim in order to use less fabric.

1978 N.Y. Times Mag. 23 July 23/2 Frye-boot chic was swept aside as big-top looks became slimdown looks.

1980 Daily Tel. 4 Nov. 1/2 There may be a repeat of the late-1979 confrontation over the British Leyland slimdown and efficiency programme.

1978 Detroit Free Press 5 Mar. b14/5 Other corporations are impressed by their strong cash positions, their slimmed-down lease structures and their good earnings.

1981 Times 7 Aug. 20/3 Mercantile House continued to advance in its slimmed-down form.