Form

(the 8th and 9th senses, pron. fōrm in Eng.), n. [Fr. forme, Sp., Pg., & It. forma, from Lat. forma, whence also Ger., Sw., & Dan. form, D. vorm.]

1Sense 1. The shape and structure of any thing, as distinguished from the material of which it is composed; particular disposition of matter, giving it individuality or distinctive character; configuration; figure; frame; external appearance; the outline of the person; a mental transcript or image.

The form of his visage was changed. Dan. iii. 19.

Imagination bodies forth The forms of things unknown. Shak.

And woven close, both matter, form, and style. Milton.

2Sense 2. Constitution; mode of construction, arrangement, organization, or the like; system; as, a republican form of government.

3Sense 3. Established method of expression or practice, fixed way of proceeding; conventional or stated scheme; formula; as, a form of prayer.

4Sense 4. Show without substance; empty, outside appearance; vain, trivial, or conventional ceremony; conventionality; formality.

Though well we may not pass upon his life Without the form of justice. Shak.

5Sense 5. Orderly arrangement; shapeliness; also, comeliness; elegance; beauty.

The earth was without form and void. Gen. i. 2.

He hath no form nor comeliness. Isa. iii. 2.

6Sense 6. That which has form; a shape; a phantom.

7Sense 7. That by which shape is given or determined; mold; pattern; model.

8Sense 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.” Burnet.

9Sense 9. The seat or bed of a hare.

As in a form sitteth a weary hare. Chaucer.

10Sense 10. (Print.) The type from which an impression is to be taken, arranged and secured in a chase.

11Sense 11. (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.

12Sense 12. 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 the object or condition, which is called the matter;—subjectively, a mode of apprehension or belief conceived as dependent on the mind or constitution; objectively, universal and necessary accompaniments of every object known or thought of; element.

v. t. [imp. & p. p. FORMED; p. pr. & vb. n. FORMING.] [Fr. former, Pr., Sp., & Pg. formar, It. & Lat. formare, from Lat. forma. See supra.]

1Sense 1. To give form or shape to; to frame; to construct; to make; to fashion; to produce; to constitute.

God formed man of the dust of the ground. Gen. ii. 7.

The thought that labors in my forming brain. Rowe.

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

2Sense 2. To give a particular shape to; to shape, mold, or fashion into a certain state or condition; to arrange; also, to model by instruction and discipline; to mold; to train.

'Tis education forms the common mind. Pope.

3Sense 3. To go to make up; to act as constituent of; to be the essential or constitutive elements of; to answer as; to take the shape of; — said of that out of which any thing is formed or constituted, in whole or in part.

The diplomatic politicians . . . who formed by far the majority. Burke.

4Sense 4. To provide with a form, as a hare.

The melancholy hare is formed in brakes and briers. Drayton.

5Sense 5. (Gram.) To derive by grammatical rules, as by adding the proper suffixes and affixes.