slim jim
(slɪm dʒɪm)
Also slim Jim, Slim Jim.
[Rhyming combination of slim a. and the proper name Jim.]
A very slim or thin person.
| 1889 ‘Mark Twain’ Conn. Yankee xxxix. 500 Go it, slim Jim! |
2. transf. (See quot. 1925.)
| 1916 Joyce Portrait of Artist ii. 104 He had..eaten slim jim out of his cricket cap. 1925 ― Let. 31 Oct. (1966) III. 129 This is a kind of sweet meat made of a soft marshmellow jelly which is coated first with pink sugar and then powdered, so far as I remember with cocoanut chips. It is called ‘Slim Jim’ because it is sold in strips about a foot or a foot and a half in length and an inch in breadth. |
3. attrib. Designating something long and thin or narrow, as slim-jim pants, slim jim tie, etc. Also ellipt. in pl.
| 1916 R. Frost Mountain Interval 60 That ought to make you An ideal one-girl farm, And give you a chance to put some strength On your slim-jim arm. 1956 Amer. Speech XXXI. 307 Frontier Pants..slim jims, long pants, tapered so closely that they must be zipped at the ankles, or must have slits. 1957 [see jean 2 b]. 1960 Guardian 9 Mar. 6/1 Warm flannelette lined corduroy ‘slim jims’. 1962 Times 13 Apr. 6/4 Worthing Museum..is asking for a Teddy boy costume, ‘with narrow trousers, fancy waist⁓coat, three-quarter jacket, Slim Jim tie and thick-soled crepe sneakers’. 1962 Spectator 27 Apr. 536 The spade ties everyone wore before the slim jims came in. 1973 O. Sela Portuguese Fragment (1974) xi. 61 He wore a long sleeved white shirt and slim-jim tie. |