Category:Form

form (. Etym: [See Form, n.]

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

form Form (form; in senses 8 & 9, often form in England), n. Etym: [OE. & F. forme, fr. L. forma; cf. Skr. dhariman. Cf. Firm.]

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. Dan. iii. 19. And woven close close, both matter, form, and style. Milton.

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. Dryden.

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. Shak.

5. Orderly arrangement; shapeliness; also, comeliness; elegance; beauty. The earth was without form and void. Gen. i. 2. He hath no form nor comeliness. Is. liii. 2.

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." Bp. Burnet.

9. The seat or bed of a hare. As in a form sitteth a weary hare. Chaucer.

10. (Print.)

Defn: The type or other matter from which an impression is to be taken, arranged and secured in a chase.

11. (Fine Arts)

Defn: The boundary line of a material object. In painting, more generally, the human body.

12. (Gram.)

Defn: The particular shape or structure of a word or part of speech; as, participial forms; verbal forms.

13. (Crystallog.)

Defn: The combination of planes included under a general crystallographic symbol. It is not necessarily a closed solid.

14. (Metaph.)

Defn: 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.)

Defn: 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, atterwards 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.

form Form, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Formed; p. pr. & vb. n. Forming.] Etym: [F. former, L. formare, fr. forma. See Form, n.]

1. To give form or shape to; to frame; to construct; to make; to fashion. God formed man of the dust of the ground. Gen. ii. 7. The thought that labors in my forming brain. Rowe.

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. Pope. Thus formed for speed, he challenges the wind. Dryden.

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. Burke.

4. To provide with a form, as a hare. See Form, n., 9. The melancholy hare is formed in brakes and briers. Drayton.

5. (Gram.)

Defn: To derive by grammatical rules, as by adding the proper suffixes and affixes.

form 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. B. Jonson. To form on (Mil.), to form a lengthened line with reference to (any given object) as a basis.