Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (also trim up) to beat, to trounce, to defeat.

1515–16		Skelton Magnyfycence line 1345: To clothe the nakyd where is lackynge a smocke – Trymme at her tayle or a man can turne a socke.
c.1520		Wife Lapped in Morrelles Skin in Hazlitt Early Popular Poetry IV line 717: For I will trim thee in thy geare, Or else I would I were cald a Sow.
c.1550		R. Wever Lusty Juventus Diii: Tell me I pray you who it was And I wyll trim the knaue by the blessed mas.
1569–70		T. Preston Cambyses E: Bum bay thou Hod, a little would make me ye trim. Giue thee a swap on thy nose till thy hart ake.
1586		G. Whetstone Mirrour for Magestrates of Citties (2nd edn) J1: There is a natural malice generally impressed in the hearts of the gentlemen [...] they foorwith call him A trimme merchaunt.
1611		Chapman May-Day III ii: I’faith, we shall trim him betwixt us.
1639		Beaumont & Fletcher Wit Without Money IV i: You have been trim’d already.
1680		T. Betterton Match in Newgate II i: I am sent to trim Mr. Dashit.
1756		W. Toldervy Hist. of the Two Orphans IV 146: I chez trim this vellow I warrant ye myself. [Ibid.] IV 184: Sir, you deserve to be well trimmed, and were it not for the respect that I bear to you [...] I believe that I should put you to the cudgel fiercely!
1762		Bridges Homer Travestie (1764) I 79: Thou com’st most apropo incog. / To see how I will trim this dog.
1772		Bridges Burlesque Homer (3rd edn) 19: See how I will trim the dog.
1781–2		J. Messink Choice of Harlequin II ix: With Parker and Rodney we’ll trim the mounseer; / We’ll tickle the Spaniard, and wing the mynheer.
1795		J. O’Keeffe Life’s Vagaries 40: She’ll trim his gay Lordship.
1803		Derby Mercury 11 Aug. 4/1: A rank Tyrant in Heart, / From Paris set out in a Huff / And most solemnly swore / [...] / He’d trim the poor Englishman’s Buff.
1896		F. Hutcheson Barkeep Stories 176: ‘Oh, you had a battle wid a guy an’ he trimmed you, huh?’ [...] ‘I didn’t get no trimmin’ from nobody’.
1899		Ade Fables in Sl. (1902) 164: Then he would go around them, like a Cooper around a Barrel, and Trim them right and proper.
1907		D. Runyon ‘Fat Fallon’ From First to Last (1954) 30: ‘If you think you can trim me, come back of the barracks and try it.’.
1915		Van Loan ‘Sporting Doctor’ Taking the Count 21: After I’ve trimmed up the bunch, Brooks and Brady won’t have a chance to give me the go-by.
1917		R. Lardner ‘Three Kings & a Pair’ in Gullible’s Travels 70: Archibald’s gang trimmed Veto’s in a big roughhouse one night.
1920		A. Baer Says ‘Bugs’ Baer 19 Aug. [synd. col.] He was trimming an Englishman to an inch of his life insurance.
1930		J. Lait Put on the Spot 22: We trimmed him, didn’t we?
1952		(con. 1946) G. Fowler Schnozzola 240: Do you want to get trimmed again? Do you want to get hurt?
1959		G. Slatter Gun in My Hand 44: I tried to trim him down but he did me over proper.
1975		T. Berger Sneaky People (1980) 67: I’ll trim your ass, is what I’ll do.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. 111: I’ll trim the knots off you Promise of a thrashing; trim is an old word for thrashing.

2. (also trim up) in fig. (non-physical) senses; to defeat in competition.

1597		G. Harvey Trimming of Thomas Nashe B: Come, sit downe, Ile trim you my selfe.
1906		S. Ford Shorty McCabe 201: Buddy had bet hot air against real money, and trimmed his man.
1910		F.P. Dunne Mr Dooley Says 94: Their art had ours thrimmed to a frazzle.
1913		Fr. Klaeber ‘A Word-List From Minnesota’ in DN IV:i 12: trim up, v. To defeat (in a game). ‘They trimmed up every team that came their way.’.
1920		Ade Hand-made Fables 285: He took on a Crip and trimmed him, getting one Hole in 8.
1922		S. Lewis Babbitt (1974) 311: My old dad [...] packed an awful wallop when it came to trimming the City Fellers at checkers.
1927		R. Lardner ‘Hurry Kane’ Coll. Short Stories (1941) 101: Olds was trimmed, but Carney and Kane both won.

3. to reprimand, to scold.

a.1536		Tyndale Works ii 313 in Oliphant New Eng. I 431: The priests propose to trim Queen Katherine [F&H].
1775		Sheridan Rivals (1776) II i: Soh! Sir Anthony trims my master.
1932		J. Dixon Free To Love 15: What’s this row, Kit? [...] Old man trimming you down?

4. to have sexual intercourse; thus trimming n.

1609		T. Heywood Rape of Lucrece Let every man get him a love, To trim her well, and fight no more.
c.1611		Dekker Match me in London I i: A Barber stood with her on Saturday night very late, when he had shau’d all his Customers, and as I thinke, came to trimme her.
1611		Chapman May-Day IV iv: Some honest man’s wife of the parish, that steals abroad for a trimming, while he sits secure at home, little knowing, God knows, what hangs over his head.
c.1620		Fletcher False One II iii: And she would be cool’d, Sir, let the Souldiers trim her.
c.1632		Ford Love’s Sacrifice II i: Roar about the court that I have been your woman’s barber and trimmed ye.
1657		T. Jordan Walks of Islington and Hogsdon I i: Drink off a brimmer, to he that doth [trim her].
1661		‘The Tinker’ in Farmer Merry Songs and Ballads (1897) I 144: Quoth she, our Cauldron hath most need / As it we will begin, / For it will hold you half an hour / To trim it out and in.
1685–8		Crafty Barber of Debtford n.p.: He did please his Ladies fair and trimm’d them both so neatly, That she did wish to have a shave.
1700		‘Ballad of All the Trades’ in Playford Pills to Purge Melancholy II 62: O the Barber [...] He never goes to wash and shave / But he trims, but he trims, but he trims his Maiden first.
c.1705		‘The Thing’ in Farmer Merry Songs and Ballads (1897) II 124: The Parson well pleas’d Trims the Smoaking Sir Loin / And slyly leers at the Pudding.
1719		in D’Urfey Pills to Purge Melancholy IV 62: The neat and nimble Barber ... never goes to Wash and Shave, But he trims ... his Maiden first.
1772		Bridges Burlesque Homer (3rd edn) 377: Must atreus’ sons all wenches sieze, / And trim ’em where and where they please.
1784		Rambler’s Mag. May 181/2: It was a just observation [...] that there were two things in Florence that could not be too much trimmed — a ship and an Italian woman.
1833		Satirist (London) 6 Jan. 429/2: Her Majesty was never fond of open habits. The robe is richly lined [...] but our gracious King, it is said, does not approve of the trimming.
1965		H. Rhodes Chosen Few (1966) 11: How come any of us can trim her any time we wanna?
1969		B. Jackson Thief’s Primer 110: I trimmed her three or four times as I remember and just had a ball.

5. to cheat of money or possessions; thus trimming n. and adj.

1604		Dekker Newes from Graues-end (1925) 78: Thou wouldst neuer haue gone to any Barbers in London whilst thou had liude, but haue bin trimd only there, for they are the true shauers, and they haue the right Neapolitan polling.
1691		J. Wilson Belphegor IV iii: A hate a trimming devil.
c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Trimming c. Cheating people of their Money.
1707		Humours of a Coffee-House 26 Dec. 79: Now hear how yours grated upon the Ears, Trimming Tom Double.
1725		New Canting Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
1737, 1759, 1760, 1776		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1837		‘Juggling Johnny’ in Blackwood’s Edin. Mag. 785: My nimming, trimming Johnny.
1904		C. Connors Bowery Life [ebook] Sum odder bloke wot ain't bin so lucky, or ain't worked so hard, will put up er job on him an’ trim him--yer know, rob him.
1905		H. Green Actors’ Boarding House (1906) 222: Here was an old sucker ripe for trimming.
1916		J. Lait ‘Canada Kid’ in Beef, Iron and Wine (1917) 176: You what used to trim smart-Alec get-rich-quick guys an’ take the dicks what come after you. You’ve flopped a long way.
1919		N.Y. Trib. 25 Nov. 9/3: He also learned to gamble and became a ‘gandy dancer.’ A gandy dancer is a non-working inhabitant of railway construction camps who lives by an ability to ‘stack’ cards or ‘trim’ opponents with loaded dice.
1928		M.C. Sharpe Chicago May (1929) 25: There were women who ran dipping-houses in Custom House Place. They were like booths, into which you took your man. If you succeeded in getting him in, the landlady soon helped you trim him.
1933		W. Winchell On Broadway 9 Sept. [synd. col.] In the old days when they wanted to trim a sucker they sold him the Brooklyn Bridge.
1940		D. Maurer Big Con 15: He wanted to trim the millionaire rather than the store.
1941		A. Gurney Bluey & Curley 16 Sept. [synd. cartoon strip] They’re trimming a new sap.
1956		J. Thompson ‘The Cellini Chalice’ in Fireworks (1988) 67: The sucker you’d trimmed was always the best sucker to trim again.
1955		B. Hill Boss of Britain’s Underworld 61: I told her that the young reporter was [...] worth a stack. ‘You can trim him for his lot if you play your cards right’.
1957		C. Himes Imabelle 42: She [...] done help them to trim you.
1965		C. Himes Rage in Harlem (1969) 44: She [...] done help them trim you.
1973		E. Bunker No Beast So Fierce 95: I keep up my candy and cigarette habit by trimming suckers playing poker.
1981		E. Bunker Little Boy Blue (1995) 77: After five passes, when they’d trimmed off two thousand, they walked away.
1999		Guardian Rev. 3 July 10: All con men agree that it is next to impossible to trim a Chinese.

6. to explain.

1925

Gleason & Taber Is Zat So? I ii: Can you trim dat guy! I can’t never learn him nuttin!

7. as ext. of sense 4, to satisfy a woman sexually.

1978

R. Charles Brother Ray 223: Other chicks might want more from you than just straight screwing. They might want to get trimmed in another way. They might want you to do something nice with your mouth or your tongue.