Verb

1. Make firm or strong; fix securely.
2. Make compact or resistant to pressure; solidify.
3. Become firm; stabilise.
4. Improve after decline.
5. Aust. To shorten (of betting odds).

Firm or The Firm can have several meanings:

• Any business entity such as a corporation, partnership or sole proprietorship. This more general meaning is used in macroeconomics (in terms such as ideal firm size).
• The word firm is sometimes used in a more restrictive sense to refer to a business group of professionals, such as law firm, architectural firm, securities/financial firm (such as private equity), or consulting firm. This use can be seen in phrases such as white shoe firm. Contrast with sole practitioner.
• British slang phrase for a criminal gang or football hooligans (see list of hooligan firms).

Organizations

• Organizations called The Firm:
  • The Firm, a criminal gang active in the East End of London, once run by the Kray twins
  • The British Royal Family, allegedly referred to as the "the Firm" by family members
  • Secret Intelligence Service (SIS or MI6), one of the United Kingdom intelligence agencies
  • McKinsey & Company, a large multinational management consulting firm
  • Firmaet, an anti-communist private intelligence agency in Demark run by former Danish resistance movement leader Arne Sejr

Music and popular culture

• The Firm (EastEnders), a fictional organisation in the British TV series, EastEnders
• The Firm (novel), a 1991 novel by John Grisham
  • The Firm (film), a 1993 movie based on the book
• The Firm (1988 film), a British TV movie starring Gary Oldman
• The Firm (band), a British rock group formed in 1984 by Jimmy Page and Paul Rodgers
• The Firm (group), a hip-hop music supergroup that released one album in 1997
• The Firm (Star Trekkin'), a music act that produced the 1987 UK #1 hit "Star Trekkin'"
• The Firm (pop group), a London-based pop group
• The F.I.R.M., a fictional organization in the TV series Airwolf
• The Firm (TV series), a 2007 Malaysian corporate reality television programme.
• The Firm, Inc., a Beverly Hills-based talent management company headed by Jeff Kwatinetz

See also

• FIRM

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