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Form   /fɔrm/   Listen
noun
Form  n.  
1.
The shape and structure of anything, as distinguished from the material of which it is composed; particular disposition or arrangement of matter, giving it individuality or distinctive character; configuration; figure; external appearance. "The form of his visage was changed." "And woven close close, both matter, form, and style."
2.
Constitution; mode of construction, organization, etc.; system; as, a republican form of government.
3.
Established method of expression or practice; fixed way of proceeding; conventional or stated scheme; formula; as, a form of prayer. "Those whom form of laws Condemned to die."
4.
Show without substance; empty, outside appearance; vain, trivial, or conventional ceremony; conventionality; formality; as, a matter of mere form. "Though well we may not pass upon his life Without the form of justice."
5.
Orderly arrangement; shapeliness; also, comeliness; elegance; beauty. "The earth was without form and void." "He hath no form nor comeliness."
6.
A shape; an image; a phantom.
7.
That by which shape is given or determined; mold; pattern; model.
8.
A long seat; a bench; hence, a rank of students in a school; a class; also, a class or rank in society. "Ladies of a high form."
9.
The seat or bed of a hare. "As in a form sitteth a weary hare."
10.
(Print.) The type or other matter from which an impression is to be taken, arranged and secured in a chase.
11.
(Fine Arts) The boundary line of a material object. In (painting), more generally, the human body.
12.
(Gram.) The particular shape or structure of a word or part of speech; as, participial forms; verbal forms.
13.
(Crystallog.) The combination of planes included under a general crystallographic symbol. It is not necessarily a closed solid.
14.
(Metaph.) That assemblage or disposition of qualities which makes a conception, or that internal constitution which makes an existing thing to be what it is; called essential or substantial form, and contradistinguished from matter; hence, active or formative nature; law of being or activity; subjectively viewed, an idea; objectively, a law.
15.
Mode of acting or manifestation to the senses, or the intellect; as, water assumes the form of ice or snow. In modern usage, the elements of a conception furnished by the mind's own activity, as contrasted with its object or condition, which is called the matter; subjectively, a mode of apprehension or belief conceived as dependent on the constitution of the mind; objectively, universal and necessary accompaniments or elements of every object known or thought of.
16.
(Biol.) The peculiar characteristics of an organism as a type of others; also, the structure of the parts of an animal or plant.
Good form or Bad form, the general appearance, condition or action, originally of horses, afterwards of persons; as, the members of a boat crew are said to be in good form when they pull together uniformly. The phrases are further used colloquially in description of conduct or manners in society; as, it is not good form to smoke in the presence of a lady.


verb
Form  v. t.  (past & past part. formed; pres. part. forming)  
1.
To give form or shape to; to frame; to construct; to make; to fashion. "God formed man of the dust of the ground." "The thought that labors in my forming brain."
2.
To give a particular shape to; to shape, mold, or fashion into a certain state or condition; to arrange; to adjust; also, to model by instruction and discipline; to mold by influence, etc.; to train. "'T is education forms the common mind." "Thus formed for speed, he challenges the wind."
3.
To go to make up; to act as constituent of; to be the essential or constitutive elements of; to answer for; to make the shape of; said of that out of which anything is formed or constituted, in whole or in part. "The diplomatic politicians... who formed by far the majority."
4.
To provide with a form, as a hare. See Form, n., 9. "The melancholy hare is formed in brakes and briers."
5.
(Gram.) To derive by grammatical rules, as by adding the proper suffixes and affixes.
6.
(Elec.) To treat (plates) so as to bring them to fit condition 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 now the plates or grids are coated or filled, one with a paste of red lead and the other with litharge, introduced into the cell, and formed by a direct charging current.


Form  v. i.  
1.
To take a form, definite shape, or arrangement; as, the infantry should form in column.
2.
To run to a form, as a hare.
To form on (Mil.), to form a lengthened line with reference to (any given object) as a basis.


suffix
-form  suff.  A suffix used to denote in the form or shape of, resembling, etc.; as, valiform; oviform.





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Form" Quotes from Famous Books



... morality to be drawn out of this vision, I learnt from it never to repine at my own misfortunes, or to envy the happiness of another, since it is impossible for any man to form a right judgment of his neighbor's sufferings; for which reason, also, I have determined never to think too lightly of another's complaints, but to regard the sorrows of my fellow-creatures with ...
— McGuffey's Sixth Eclectic Reader • William Holmes McGuffey
... through the form of having tea as usual that night at Echo Lodge; but nobody really ate anything. After tea Miss Lavendar went to her room and put on her new forget-me-not organdy, while Anne did her hair for her. Both were dreadfully ...
— Anne Of Avonlea • Lucy Maud Montgomery
... part about the thickness of a Cock's Comb. Then, with a Jagging-Iron, cut Pieces out of it, in the shape of Cocks Combs, and the remaining Parts between, may be cut to pieces, and used in Pyes, and serve every whit as well as Cocks Combs: but those cut in form, please the Eye best; and, as Mr. Renaud observes, the Eye must be pleased, before we can taste any thing with Pleasure. And therefore, in Fricassees we should put those which are cut according ...
— The Country Housewife and Lady's Director - In the Management of a House, and the Delights and Profits of a Farm • Richard Bradley
... toward the latter end of the month. She could have been refitted with much ease at Sydney; but there was no doubt that the work necessary to be done to her would meet with fewer interruptions, if the people who were engaged in it were removed from the connections which seamen generally form where there are women of a certain ...
— An Account of the English Colony in New South Wales, Vol. 1 • David Collins
... was pleased accordingly. He had, he felt sure, sown in the statesman's mind a germ of suspicion which would before long bring forth fruit. In those days danger was plentiful, and people could not afford to overlook it, no matter in what form it presented itself, least of all such people as the Cardinal himself, who, while sustaining an unequal combat against superior forces outside the State, felt that his every step was encompassed by perils from within. ...
— Saracinesca • F. Marion Crawford


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