dim

Not bright or colorful.

Adjective

  1. Not bright or colorful.
    • 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, […],...

    Synonyms: dull dingy

  2. Not smart or intelligent.
    • He may be a bit dim, but he's not entirely stupid.

    Synonyms: addlebrained addlepated airheaded bee-brained beef-witted beefheaded beetle-headed birdbrained blockheaded Boeotian boneheaded boofheaded braindead brainless bubbleheaded buffle-headed bullet-headed cerebrally challenged childish chowderheaded chuckleheaded crackbrained cretinous daft

  3. Indistinct, hazy or unclear.
    • His vision grew dimmer as he aged.

    Synonyms: dim fuzzy hazy ill-defined ill-marked indefinite indistinct indistinguishable muzzy obscure undefined vague

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

    Synonyms: deprecative improbatory reprobative reprobatory

Origin

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”).

Forms

dimmer dimmest

Synonyms

dusk bland colourless dim dingy dull faint lackluster leaden muddy sad sober uncolorful unholiday wan

Antonyms

bright colored multicolored

Hyponyms

achromatic dark colour beige drab dun sallow flat matt matte

Related

dark pallid cheerless

Derived

dim and distant dimbo dim bulb dim-headed dim-lit dimly dimmish dimmity dimmy dim-sighted dimsome dimwit dim-witted → dim-wittedness nice-but-dim

Adjective entertainment, lifestyle

  1. Clipping of diminished.

Synonyms

bland colourless dim dingy dull faint lackluster leaden muddy sad sober uncolorful unholiday wan

Antonyms

bright colored multicolored

Hyponyms

achromatic dark colour beige drab dun sallow flat matt matte

Related

dim. dark pallid cheerless

Noun

  1. Dimness.
    • 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,...

Verb

  1. To make something less bright.
    • He dimmed the lights and put on soft music.
  2. To 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.
    • 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]...
    • 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: […]...
  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.
    • 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....
    • Her starry eyes were dimm'd with streaming tears. - 1740, Christopher Pitt, The Aeneid:
  5. To diminish, dull, or curtail.
    • 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.

Forms

dims dimming dimmed

Related

dim mak dim sum

Derived

autodimming bedim dimmable dimmer dim out fordim nondimmable undimmable undimmed undimming