• Shim

    Pronunciation

    • IPA: /ʃɪm/
    • Rhymes: -ɪm

    Origin 1

    Unknown; from Kent.

    Online Etymology Dictionary

    Merriam Webster Online

    Originally a piece of iron attached to a plow; sense of “thin piece of wood” from 1723, sense of “thin piece of material used for alignment or support” from 1860.

    Full definition of shim

    Noun

    shim

    (plural shims)
    1. A wedge.
    2. A thin piece of material, sometimes tapered, used for alignment or support.
    3. (computing) A small library that transparently intercepts and modifies calls to an API, usually for compatibility purposes.
    4. A kind of shallow plow used in tillage to break the ground and clear it of weeds.
    5. A small metal device used to pick open a lock.

    Verb

    1. To fit one or more shims to a piece of machinery
    2. To adjust something by using shims

    Origin 2

    From she + him.

    Noun

    shim

    (plural shims)
    1. (informal, often derogatory) a person characterised by both male and female traits, or by ambiguous male-female traits, also called a he-she; transsexual.
      • 1998, Hobart Student Association, The Seneca review:He — or "Shim" (she/him), as film director John Waters called the actor Divine — was as much a paradoxical as a perverse fellow.
      • 1995, The Advocate - May 30, 1995 - Page 11:"We call him shim— short for 'she-him.'
    2. (informal, often derogatory) hermaphrodite.

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