dim

The lighting was too dim for me to make out his facial features.

that sustaining Love / Which, through the web of being blindly wove / By man and beast and earth and air and sea, / Burns bright or dim

1821, Percy B[ysshe] Shelley, Adonais: An Elegy on the Death of John Keats, […], Pisa, Italy: […] Didot; reprinted London: Noel Douglas […], 1927, →OCLC:

He may be a bit dim, but he's not entirely stupid.

His vision grew dimmer as he aged.

take a dim view of
take a dim view of#English

Disapproving, unfavorable: rarely used outside the phrase take a dim view of.

en-adj

dim (comparative dimmer, superlative dimmest)

dimmer (comparative)
dimmest (superlative)

From Middle English dim, dym, from Old English dim, dimm (“dim, dark, gloomy; wretched, grievous, sad, unhappy”), from Proto-West Germanic *dimm, from Proto-Germanic *dimmaz (“dark”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰem- (“to whisk, smoke; obscure”). Compare Faroese dimmur (“dark”), Icelandic dimmur (“dark”) and dimma (“darkness”).


dim

All about me the Red Weed clambered among the ruins, writhing to get above me in the dim. Night, the Mother of Fear and Mystery, was coming upon me.

1898, H.G. Wells, The War of the Worlds, London: William Heinemann, page 278:


dim

He dimmed the lights and put on soft music.

(transitive) To make something less bright.

The lights dimmed briefly when the air conditioning was turned on.

a king among his courtiers,[…] who out to dim the lustre of all his attendants

1695, C[harles] A[lphonse] du Fresnoy, translated by John Dryden, De Arte Graphica. The Art of Painting, […], London: […] J[ohn] Heptinstall for W. Rogers, […], →OCLC:

Now ſet the ſun, and twilight dimm'd the ways, […]

1791, Homer, “[The Odyssey.] Book II.”, in W[illiam] Cowper, transl., The Iliad and Odyssey of Homer, Translated into Blank Verse, […], volume II, London: […] J[oseph] Johnson, […], →OCLC, page 42, line 501:

To render dim, obscure, or dark; to make less bright or distinct.

And with our Sun-bright armour as we march,
Weel chaſe the Starrs from heauen, and dim their eies
That ſtand and muſe at our admyred armes.

c. 1587–1588, [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire, London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act II, scene iii:

Her starry eyes were dimm'd with streaming tears.

To deprive of distinct vision; to hinder from seeing clearly, either by dazzling or clouding the eyes; to darken the senses or understanding of.

All these setbacks had started to dim the hopes of the students.

Nothing will dim their spirit of resilience.

A glut might dim the outlook for grain futures.

en:diminish, dull, or curtail, figuratively

(figurative) To diminish, dull, or curtail.

en-verb

dim (third-person singular simple present dims, present participle dimming, simple past and past participle dimmed)

dims (present singular third-person)
dimming (participle present)
dimmed (participle past)
dimmed (past)


dim

(reintegrationist norm) third-person plural present indicative of dizer


dim

third-person singular/plural present indicative of dimēt

(with the particle lai) third-person singular imperative of dimēt

(with the particle lai) third-person plural imperative of dimēt


dim

Han er dim på synet

head

dim (neuter singular dimt, definite singular and plural dimme, comparative dimmere, indefinite superlative dimmest, definite superlative dimmeste)

dimt (neuter singular)
dimme (definite plural singular)
dimmere (comparative)
dimmest (indefinite superlative)
dimmeste (definite superlative)

From Old Norse dimmr. Related to English dim and Icelandic dimmur.


dim

Han er dim på synet

dim (neuter singular dimt, definite singular and plural dimme, comparative dimmare, indefinite superlative dimmast, definite superlative dimmaste)

dimt (neuter singular)
dimme (definite plural singular)
dimmare (comparative)
dimmast (indefinite superlative)
dimmaste (definite superlative)

From the Old Norse adjective dimmr, from Proto-Germanic *dimmaz. The neuter noun is derived from the adjective. The automotive senses may be a Back-formation from of the verb dimme.


dim

(automotive, colloquial) a switching of one's headlamps from high-beam to low-beam

(automotive, colloquial) lever, button or other

(dialectal) Clipping of dimme (“twilight, half darkness”).

dim m (definite singular dimmen, indefinite plural dimmar, definite plural dimmane)

dimmen (definite singular)
dimmar (indefinite plural)
dimmane (definite plural)


dim

(dialectal) dimmest, darkest part of the summer night

nn-noun-unc

dim n (definite singular dimmet, uncountable)


dim

dȉm (canonical masculine)
ди̏м (Cyrillic)
dim (nominative singular)
dimovi (nominative plural)
dima (genitive singular)
dimova (genitive plural)
dimu (dative singular)
dimovima (dative plural)
dim (accusative singular)
dimove (accusative plural)
dime (singular vocative)
dimovi (plural vocative)
dimu (locative singular)
dimovima (locative plural)
dimom (instrumental singular)
dimovima (instrumental plural)

Inherited from Proto-Slavic *dymъ, from Proto-Balto-Slavic *dū́ˀmas, from Proto-Indo-European *dʰuh₂mós.


dim

dȉm (canonical inanimate masculine)
please help by adding the tonal marks.
dìm (nominative singular)
díma (genitive singular)
dímu (dative singular)
dìm (accusative singular)
dímu (locative singular)
dímom (instrumental singular)


dim

(international standards) ISO 639-3 language code for Dime.

A Cᵈⁱᵐ chord is composed of C–E^♭-G^♭.

(music, popular music notation) diminished chord


dim

From Middle Welsh dim, cognate with the rare Old Irish dim (“something, anything”) (which may be a Brythonic loanword), with further etymology uncertain. Matasović derives the word from Proto-Celtic *dis-smi-, dissimilated from Proto-Indo-European *dus-smi- (literally “bad one”). Alternatively, Morris-Jones hypothesizes the original meaning was “share, portion” and derives the word from Proto-Celtic *dīsman, from Proto-Indo-European *deh₂y- (“to share”).
Development of the particle sense (“not”) is an instance of Jespersen's Cycle.