dim

comparative dimmer · superlative dimmest

1. Not bright or colorful.

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

   1 more example

   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

   Synonyms: dull, dingy

2. colloquialNot smart or intelligent.

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

   Synonyms: addlebrained, addlepated, airheaded, bee-brained, beef-witted, soft, beefheaded, beetle-headed

3. Indistinct, hazy or unclear.

   His vision grew dimmer as he aged.

   Synonyms: fuzzy, distant, hazy, ill-defined, ill-marked, indefinite, indistinct, indistinguishable

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

   Synonyms: deprecative, improbatory, reprobative, reprobatory

1. archaicuncountableDimness.

   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

present singular third person dims · participle present dimming · participle past dimmed · past dimmed

1. transitiveTo make something less bright.

   He dimmed the lights and put on soft music.

2. intransitiveTo become darker.

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

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

   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

   1 more example

   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

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

   Her starry eyes were dimm'd with streaming tears.

   1740, Christopher Pitt, The Aeneid

   1 more example

   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 (date written), [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

5. figurativelyTo diminish, dull, or curtail.

   Nothing will dim their spirit of resilience.

   2 more examples

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

   A glut might dim the outlook for grain futures.

1. abbreviationclippingnot comparableentertainmentClipping of diminished.

1. A male given name (from Bashkir Дим) .
2. singularvocativevocative singular of Ди́ма (Díma)(•colloquial)