trim

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. v. To make neat or tidy by clipping, smoothing, or pruning: trimmed his moustache.
2. v. To remove (excess) by cutting: trim a budget.
3. v. To remove the excess from by or as if by cutting: trimmed off the rotten wood.
4. v. To ornament; decorate.
5. v. Informal To thrash; beat.
6. v. Informal To defeat soundly.
7. v. Informal To cheat.
8. v. Informal To rebuke; scold.
9. v. Nautical To adjust (the sails and yards) so that they receive the wind properly.
10. v. Nautical To balance (a ship) by shifting its cargo or contents.
11. v. To balance (an aircraft) in flight by regulating the control surfaces and tabs.
12. v. To furnish or equip.
13. v. Nautical To be in or retain equilibrium.
14. v. Nautical To make sails and yards ready for sailing.
15. v. To affect or maintain cautious neutrality.
16. v. To fashion one's views for momentary popularity or advantage.
17. n. State of order, arrangement, or appearance; condition: in good trim.
18. n. A condition of good health or fitness.
19. n. Exterior ornamentation, such as moldings or framework, on a building or vehicle.
20. n. Decoration or ornament, as for clothing.
21. n. Material used in commercial window displays.
22. n. Dress or equipment.
23. n. Excised or rejected material, such as film that has been cut in editing. Often used in the plural.
24. n. Personal quality; character.
25. n. A cutting or clipping to make neat: My hair needs a trim.
26. n. Nautical The readiness of a vessel for sailing with regard to ballast, sails, and yards.
27. n. Nautical The balance of a ship.
28. n. Nautical The difference between the draft at the bow and at the stern.
29. n. The position of an aircraft relative to its horizontal axis.
30. adj. In good or neat order.
31. adj. In good physical condition; fit; slim.
32. adj. Having lines, edges, or forms of neat and pleasing simplicity. See Synonyms at neat¹.
33. adv. In a trim manner.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. In electricity, to replace the burned-out carbons or electrodes of (an arclamp) by new ones.
2. To be in a given condition of trim
3. n. The difference in draft at the bow of a vessel from that at the stern.
4. Firm; strong.
5. In good order or condition; properly disposed, equipped, or qualified; good; excellent; fine: often used ironically.
6. Neat; spruce; smart.
7. In a trim manner; trimly.
8. To set in order; put in order; adjust; regulate; dispose.
9. Nautical, to adjust or balance, as a ship or boat, by distributing the weight of the lading so equally that it shall sit well on the water. A vessel is said to be trimmed by the head or by the stern respectively when the weight is so disposed as to make it draw more water toward the head than toward the stern, or the reverse.
10. To fit out; equip; furnish, especially with clothes; hence, to dress; deck: sometimes with up or forth.
11. Specifically, to embellish with ornaments; decorate, as with ribbons, fringe, etc.
12. To reduce to a neat or orderly state, as by clipping, paring, pruning, lopping, or otherwise removing superfluous or disfiguring parts.
13. To cut off in the process of bookbinding: said of the ragged edges of paper or the bolts of book-sections.
14. To remove by clipping, pruning, or paring; lop or cut: with off or away: as, to trim off shoots from a hedge.
15. In carpentry, to dress, as timber: make smooth; fit.
16. To rebuke; reprove sharply; also, to beat; thrash: sometimes indelicately applied to a woman. Compare untrimmed, 2.
17. To spend or waste in trimming: with away. See II.
18. Synonyms To arrange.
19. 3 and To adorn, garnish, array, trick out.
20. To keep an even balance; hold a middle course or position, especially in a contest between parties, so as to seem to incline to neither, or to both alike: from the nautical meaning. See I., 2.
21. n. Adjustment; order; condition; arrangement.
22. n. Nautical, the state of a ship, or of her cargo, ballast, spars, etc., with reference to her fitness for sailing.
23. n. Mode of appearance or equipment; guise; garb; especially, the becoming or prescribed mode of dress, ornament, etc.; the fashion; full dress; of a ship, full sail.
24. n. Dress; trapping; ornament.
25. n. Nature; character; sort; stamp.
26. n. In carpentry, the visible woodwork or finish of a house, as the base-boards, door- and window-casings, etc.

Wiktionary

1. v. transitive to reduce slightly; to cut; especially, to remove excess; e.g. 'trim a hedge', 'trim a beard'.
2. v. transitive to decorate or adorn; especially, to decorate a Christmas tree
3. v. transitive, nautical To modify the angle of a vessel to the water by shifting cargo or ballast; to adjust for sailing; to assume, or cause a vessel to assume, a certain position, or trim, in the water. (FM 55-501).
4. v. transitive, nautical To modify the angle of a vessel's sails relative to the wind, especially to set the sails to the most advantageous angle.
5. n. uncountable decoration; especially, decoration placed along edges or borders
6. n. countable a haircut, especially a moderate one to touch up an existing style
7. n. uncountable the manner in which something is equipped or adorned; especially, of a car
8. n. uncountable, slang, mildly vulgar sexual intercourse
9. n. nautical The fore-and-aft angle of the vessel to the water, with reference to the cargo and ballast; the manner in which a vessel floats on the water, whether on an even keel or down by the head or stern
10. n. nautical The arrangement of the sails with reference to the wind.
11. adj. physically fit
12. adj. slender, lean; as a trim figure
13. adj. neat or smart in appearance; as a trim lawn
14. adv. nautical In good order, properly managed or maintained.
15. adv. nautical With sails well trimmed.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. v. To make trim; to put in due order for any purpose; to make right, neat, or pleasing; to adjust.
2. v. To dress; to decorate; to adorn; to invest; to embellish.
3. v. To make ready or right by cutting or shortening; to clip or lop; to curtail.
4. v. (Carp.) To dress, as timber; to make smooth.
5. v. 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.
6. v. To arrange in due order for sailing.
7. v. colloq. To rebuke; to reprove; also, to beat.
8. v. To balance; to fluctuate between parties, so as to appear to favor each.
9. n. Dress; gear; ornaments.
10. n. Order; disposition; condition.
11. n. The state of a ship or her cargo, ballast, masts, etc., by which she is well prepared for sailing.
12. n. (Arch) The lighter woodwork in the interior of a building; especially, that used around openings, generally in the form of molded architrave, to protect the plastering at those points.
13. adj. Fitly adjusted; being in good order., or made ready for service or use; firm; compact; snug; neat; fair.

WordNet 3.0

1. v. adjust (sails on a ship) so that the wind is optimally used
2. v. cut closely
3. adj. thin and fit
4. v. cut down on; make a reduction in
5. adj. severely simple in line or design
6. n. attitude of an aircraft in flight when allowed to take its own orientation
7. adj. of places; characterized by order and neatness; free from disorder
8. v. cultivate, tend, and cut back the growth of
9. n. cutting down to the desired size or shape
10. v. balance in flight by regulating the control surfaces
11. adj. neat and smart in appearance
12. v. be in equilibrium during a flight
13. v. decorate (food), as with parsley or other ornamental foods
14. v. remove the edges from and cut down to the desired size
15. n. a decoration or adornment on a garment
16. v. decorate, as with ornaments
17. n. a state of arrangement or appearance