shim

Meanings

Noun

• A wedge.
• A thin piece of material, sometimes tapered, used for alignment or support.
• A small library that transparently intercepts and modifies calls to an API, usually for compatibility purposes.
• A kind of shallow plow used in tillage to break the ground and clear it of weeds.
• A small metal device used to pick open a lock.
• A transsexual person, especially a trans woman; a drag queen or transvestite.
• A person characterised by both male and female traits, or by ambiguous male-female traits; a hermaphrodite.

Verb

• To fit one or more shims to a piece of machinery.
• To adjust something by using shims.
• To intercept and modify calls to (an API), usually for compatibility purposes.

Origin

• Unknown; from Kent. Originally a piece of iron attached to a plow; sense of “thin piece of wood” from 1723, sense of “thin piece of material used for alignment or support” from 1860.