shim

See also: Shim and SHIM

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ʃɪm/
• Rhymes: -ɪm

Etymology 1

Unknown; from Kent. 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.

Noun

shim (plural shims)

1. A wedge.
2. A thin piece of material, sometimes tapered, used for alignment or support.
   • 2016 January 30, Jeff Howell, “Swinging doors: it's not open and shut”, in The Daily Telegraph (Property), page 15:

     The second adjustment [to a door that keeps swinging open] will require the screws to be loosened, and a shim or packing piece pushed behind the hinge to bring it into line.

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.

Translations

wedge

• French: coin (fr) m
• German: Keil (de) m

thin piece of material used for alignment or support

• French: cale d'épaisseur f, espaceur (fr) m, étai (fr) m, thibaude (fr) f
• German: Unterlage (de) f, Abstandhalter m, Abstandsblech n, Unterlegscheibe (de) f, Zwischenstück n, Klemmstück n, Distanzstück n, Futterblech n, Futterholz n, Ausgleichsblech, Ausgleichsstück n, Passstück n, Beilagscheibe f, Beilagescheibe f

small library that transparently intercepts and modifies calls

shallow plow used in tillage

• French: sarcloir (fr) m

small metal device to pick a lock

• German: Dietrich (de) m

Verb

shim (third-person singular simple present shims, present participle shimming, simple past and past participle shimmed)

1. To fit one or more shims to a piece of machinery.
2. To adjust something by using shims.
3. (computing, transitive) To intercept and modify calls to (an API), usually for compatibility purposes.

Translations

adjust by using shims

Etymology 2

Blend of 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.

Translations

person characterised by male and female traits

• German: Transsexueller m, Transsexuelle f, Transe (de) f

Anagrams

• HMIS, Mish, hims, mish

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Kanuri

Noun

shim

1. eye