diff --git a/crates/wcstringutil/src/lib.rs b/crates/wcstringutil/src/lib.rs
index 5b255e244..5c8f8894f 100644
--- a/crates/wcstringutil/src/lib.rs
+++ b/crates/wcstringutil/src/lib.rs
@@ -1,7 +1,5 @@
 //! Helper functions for working with wcstring.
 
-use std::{borrow::Cow, mem};
-
 use fish_fallback::{fish_wcwidth, lowercase, lowercase_rev, wcscasecmp, wcscasecmp_fuzzy};
 use fish_widestring::{ELLIPSIS_CHAR, prelude::*};
 
@@ -460,22 +458,21 @@ pub fn truncate(input: &wstr, max_len: usize) -> WString {
     output
 }
 
-pub fn trim<'a>(input: &'a mut WString, any_of: Option<&wstr>) -> Cow<'a, wstr> {
+// Remove leading and trailing characters in `any_of` from the string.
+// By default, trim whitespace.
+pub fn trim(input: impl Into<WString>, any_of: Option<&wstr>) -> WString {
     let any_of = any_of.unwrap_or(L!("\t\x0B \r\n"));
-    let result = input;
+    let mut result = input.into();
     let Some(suffix) = result.chars().rposition(|c| !any_of.contains(c)) else {
-        return Cow::Borrowed(L!(""));
+        return WString::new();
     };
     let prefix = result
         .chars()
         .position(|c| !any_of.contains(c))
         .expect("Should have one non-trimmed character");
     result.truncate(suffix + 1);
-    if prefix == 0 {
-        Cow::Owned(mem::take(result))
-    } else {
-        Cow::Borrowed(result.slice_from(prefix))
-    }
+    result.drain(0..prefix);
+    result
 }
 
 /// Return the number of escaping backslashes before a character.
@@ -539,7 +536,7 @@ mod tests {
     use super::{
         CaseSensitivity, ContainType, LineIterator, count_newlines, ifind, join_strings,
         split_string_tok, string_fuzzy_match_string, string_prefixes_string_case_insensitive,
-        string_suffixes_string_case_insensitive,
+        string_suffixes_string_case_insensitive, trim,
     };
     use fish_widestring::prelude::*;
 
@@ -752,4 +749,12 @@ fn test_count_newlines() {
         assert_eq!(count_newlines(L!("\n")), 1);
         assert_eq!(count_newlines(L!("\n\n")), 2);
     }
+
+    #[test]
+    fn test_trim() {
+        assert_eq!(trim(L!("foo"), None), L!("foo"));
+        assert_eq!(trim(L!("fooff"), Some(L!("f"))), L!("oo"));
+        assert_eq!(trim(L!("  foo  "), None), L!("foo"));
+        assert_eq!(trim(L!(""), None), L!(""));
+    }
 }
diff --git a/src/expand.rs b/src/expand.rs
index cc1f23957..ec27b99a0 100644
--- a/src/expand.rs
+++ b/src/expand.rs
@@ -858,8 +858,8 @@ fn expand_braces(
         if brace_count == 0 && (c == BRACE_SEP || pos == brace_end) {
             assert!(pos >= item_begin);
             let item_len = pos - item_begin;
-            let mut item = input[item_begin..pos].to_owned();
-            let item = trim(&mut item, Some(wstr::from_char_slice(&[BRACE_SPACE, '\0'])));
+            let item = &input[item_begin..pos];
+            let item = trim(item, Some(wstr::from_char_slice(&[BRACE_SPACE, '\0'])));
 
             // `whole_item` is a whitespace- and brace-stripped member of a single pass of brace
             // expansion, e.g. in `{ alpha , b,{c, d }}`, `alpha`, `b`, and `c, d` will, in the
diff --git a/src/history/history.rs b/src/history/history.rs
index ec399abd3..5441b3972 100644
--- a/src/history/history.rs
+++ b/src/history/history.rs
@@ -903,16 +903,11 @@ fn populate_from_bash<R: BufRead>(&mut self, contents: R) {
             let Ok(line) = line else {
                 break;
             };
-            let mut wide_line = bytes2wcstring(&line);
-            let wide_line = trim(&mut wide_line, None);
+            let wide_line = trim(bytes2wcstring(&line), None);
             // Add this line if it doesn't contain anything we know we can't handle.
             if should_import_bash_history_line(&wide_line) {
                 self.add(
-                    HistoryItem::new(
-                        wide_line.into_owned(),
-                        timestamps.clone(),
-                        PersistenceMode::Disk,
-                    ),
+                    HistoryItem::new(wide_line, timestamps.clone(), PersistenceMode::Disk),
                     /*pending=*/ false,
                     /*do_save=*/ false,
                 );