Rim
noun, verb, slang ·Common ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 An edge around something, especially when circular.
"That's... our galaxy. We're beyond the rim."
- 2 A membrane. UK, dialectal
- 3 A step of a ladder; a rung. British, dialectal
- 4 the top edge of a vessel or other container wordnet
- 5 A wheelrim.
"About an hour later, she noticed an all black Phantom with tints and chrome rims riding slowly through the car lot."
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- 6 The membrane enclosing the intestines; the peritoneum, hence loosely, the intestines; the lower part of the abdomen; belly. UK, dialectal, obsolete
"Moy shall not serve; I will have forty moys; / Or I will fetch thy rim out at thy throat / In drops of crimson blood."
- 7 a projection used for strength or for attaching to another object wordnet
- 8 A semicircular copydesk.
"COPY READER — Journeyman, experienced makeup, now slot man on metropolitan midwest daily. Will travel for good rim job on large paper."
- 9 the outer part of a wheel to which the tire is attached wordnet
- 10 The narrow surface of wine that meets the glass when it is tilted, used in identifying the age, body, etc.
- 11 (basketball) the hoop from which the net is suspended wordnet
- 12 the shape of a raised edge of a more or less circular object wordnet
- 1 To form a rim on. transitive
- 2 To lick the anus of a partner as a sexual act; to perform anilingus. slang, vulgar
"I had learned to lick their sweaty balls and would know what they wanted if they pulled their pants down and pushed my face in their ass for a rimming out."
- 3 roll around the rim of wordnet
- 4 To follow the contours, possibly creating a circuit. transitive
"Palm trees rim the beach."
- 5 furnish with a rim wordnet
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- 6 To roll around a rim. intransitive, transitive
"Near-synonym: lip out"
- 7 run around the rim of wordnet
- 8 To coat the rim of a glass with salt or another powder.
Antonyms
All antonymsExample
More examples"Then I slipped out the card. No water leaks out because no air can come in; the rim is too close to the table for that."
Etymology
From Middle English rim, rym, rime, from Old English rima (“rim, edge, border, bank, coast”), from Proto-Germanic *rimô, *rembô (“edge, border”), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *rem-, *remə- (“to rest, support, be based”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian Rim (“plank, wooden cross, trellis”), Old Saxon rimi (“edge; border; trim”), Icelandic rimi (“a strip of land”).
From a variation of ream.
From Middle English rim, rym, ryme, reme, from Old English rēoma (“membrane, ligament”), from Proto-West Germanic *reumō.
Unknown.
Related phrases
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.