form

1. 1

   To do with shape.; The shape or visible structure of a thing or person.countablephysicaluncountable

   • Study gives strength to the mind; conversation, grace: the first apt to give stiffness, the other suppleness: one gives substance and form to the statue, the other polishes it.
   • The desert storm was riding in its strength; the travellers lay beneath the mastery of the fell simoom.[…]Roaring, leaping, pouncing, the tempest raged about the wanderers, drowning and blotting out their forms with sandy spume.
2. 2

   To do with shape.; A thing that gives shape to other things as in a mold.countablephysicaluncountable

3. 3

   To do with shape.; Regularity, beauty, or elegance.countablephysicaluncountable

4. 4

   To do with shape.; The inherent nature of an object; that which the mind itself contributes as the condition of knowing; that in which the essence of a thing consists.countablephysicaluncountable

5. 5

   To do with shape.; Characteristics not involving atomic components.countablephysicaluncountable

6. 6

   To do with shape.; A long bench with no back.countabledatedphysical

   • And there with syr Launcelot wrapped his mantel aboute his arme wel and surely and by thenne they had geten a grete fourme oute of the halle and there with all they rasshed at the dore […].
   • In the hall. One large table, with frame. 10s. ij cobbordes 8s. j fourme, j chaire, and j kenninge measure, 12d.
7. 7

   To do with shape.; The boundary line of a material object. In painting, more generally, the human body.countablephysicaluncountable

8. 8

   To do with shape.; The combination of planes included under a general crystallographic symbol. It is not necessarily a closed solid.countablephysicaluncountable

9. 9

   To do with structure or procedure.; An order of doing things, as in religious ritual.countableuncountable

10. 10

    To do with structure or procedure.; Established method of expression or practice; fixed way of proceeding; conventional or stated scheme; formula.countableuncountable

    • Those whom form of laws Condemned to die.
    • [H]e sprang into the road, without previously going through the empty form of advising the driver of his intention, to pick [his hat] up.

syn. makeup · f.

1. 1

   To assume (a certain shape or visible structure).transitive

   • When you kids form a straight line I'll hand out the lollies.
2. 2

   To give (a shape or visible structure) to a thing or person.transitive

   • Roll out the dough to form a thin sheet.
3. 3

   To take shape.intransitive

   • When icicles start to form on the eaves you know the roads will be icy.
4. 4

   To put together or bring into being; assemble.

   • The socialists did not have enough MPs to form a government.
   • Paul McCartney and John Lennon formed The Beatles in Liverpool in 1960.
5. 5

   To create (a word) by inflection or derivation.transitive

   • By adding "-ness", you can form a noun from an adjective.
6. 6

   To constitute, to compose, to make up.transitive

   • Teenagers form the bulk of extreme traffic offenders.
   • Insects form the biggest family group in nature's kingdom, and also the oldest.
7. 7

   To mould or model by instruction or discipline.

   • Singing in a choir helps to form a child's sociality.
   • 1731–1735, Alexander Pope, Moral Essays 'Tis education forms the common mind.
8. 8

   To provide (a hare) with a form.

   • The melancholy hare is formed in brakes and briers.
9. 9

   To treat (plates) to prepare them for introduction into a storage battery, causing one plate to be composed more or less of spongy lead, and the other of lead peroxide. This was formerly done by repeated slow alternations of the charging current, but later the plates or grids were coated or filled, historicaltransitive

syn. transmogrify · take shape · make up · forshape · form · mold · shape · turn · beshape

ant. deform · distort · disfigure · misshape · wrest · buckle · contort · twist