Shim

/ʃɪm/ · noun

Meaning

A wedge..

Definitions by Sense

1. A wedge.
2. A thin piece of material, sometimes tapered, used for alignment or support.
3. (computing) A small library that transparently intercepts and modifies calls to an API, usually for compatibility purposes.
4. A kind of shallowly cutting plow used in tillage to break the ground and clear it of weeds.
5. A small metal device used to pick open a lock.
6. (crime) A thin device inserted into a card reader by a criminal to facilitate fraud.
7. (ambitransitive) To fit one or more shims to a piece of machinery or other assembly; to adjust (something) by using shims.
8. To adjust the homogeneity of a magnetic field (after the mechanical devices once used for the purpose).

Example Sentences

Near-synonym: shimstock (uncountable)

The second adjustment [to a door that keeps swinging open] will require the screws to be loosened, and a shim or packing piece pushed behind the hinge to bring it into line.

Shims intercept Win32 API calls from legacy applications, as defined by system administrators, and then modify the call before passing the code to Windows for execution.

He — or "Shim" (she/him), as film director John Waters called the actor Divine — was as much a paradoxical as a perverse fellow.

"We call him shim— short for 'she-him.'

Yes Maam, or Sir or just what / how do you address a shim?

[…] that I was a hermaphrodite, and that things would probably be getting much, much worse as other "parts" of me began to grow manly and I made the full transformation into a "shim."

Synonyms for shim

Antonyms for shim

Related Words

Word Forms

• shims
• shimming
• shimmed

Usage Notes

Choose a synonym only when it preserves the intended meaning, tone, and grammar of the full sentence.

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