Word.ws English Dictionary

trim one's sails

trim one's sails verb: to adjust a ship's sails to make the best of wind conditions.

Verb

trim one's sails (third-person singular simple present trims one's sails, present participle trimming one's sails, simple past and past participle trimmed one's sails)

  1. To adjust a ship's sails to make the best of wind conditions.
    Synonyms:
    shorten sail
  2. (broadly, figuratively) To adapt to changing circumstances, especially if it involves scaling back one's ambitions; to make cutbacks.

Synonyms of trim one's sails

  • shorten sail

Forms of trim one's sails

third-person singular presenttrims one's sails
present participletrimming one's sails
past participletrimmed one's sails
pasttrimmed one's sails
alternative formtrim one's sails to the wind

Questions about trim one's sails

What does trim one's sails mean?
Trim one's sails means to adjust a ship's sails to make the best of wind conditions.
What part of speech is trim one's sails?
Trim one's sails is a verb.
What is the past tense of trim one's sails?
The past tense of trim one's sails is trimmed one's sails.

Words near trim one's sails in the dictionary

  1. trim
  2. trim down
  3. trim down to size
  4. trim line
  5. trim lines
  6. trim one's sails
  7. trim parties
  8. trim party
  9. trim tab
  10. trim tabs
  11. trim trail

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: trim one's sails (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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