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The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 (gcide)

-form \-form\ [See {Form}, n.]
A suffix used to denote in the form or shape of, resembling,
etc.; as, valiform; oviform.
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Form \Form\ (f[=o]rm; in senses 8 & 9, often f[=o]rm in
England), n. [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.
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The form of his visage was changed. --Dan. iii.
19.
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And woven close close, both matter, form, and style.
--Milton.
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2. Constitution; mode of construction, organization, etc.;
system; as, a republican form of government.
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3. Established method of expression or practice; fixed way of
proceeding; conventional or stated scheme; formula; as, a
form of prayer.
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Those whom form of laws
Condemned to die. --Dryden.
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4. Show without substance; empty, outside appearance; vain,
trivial, or conventional ceremony; conventionality;
formality; as, a matter of mere form.
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Though well we may not pass upon his life
Without the form of justice. --Shak.
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5. Orderly arrangement; shapeliness; also, comeliness;
elegance; beauty.
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The earth was without form and void. --Gen. i. 2.
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He hath no form nor comeliness. --Is. liii. 2.
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6. A shape; an image; a phantom.
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7. That by which shape is given or determined; mold; pattern;
model.
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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.
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9. The seat or bed of a hare.
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As in a form sitteth a weary hare. --Chaucer.
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10. (Print.) The type or other matter from which an
impression is to be taken, arranged and secured in a
chase.
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11. (Fine Arts) The boundary line of a material object. In
(painting), more generally, the human body.
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12. (Gram.) The particular shape or structure of a word or
part of speech; as, participial forms; verbal forms.
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13. (Crystallog.) The combination of planes included under a
general crystallographic symbol. It is not necessarily a
closed solid.
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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.
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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.
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16. (Biol.) The peculiar characteristics of an organism as a
type of others; also, the structure of the parts of an
animal or plant.
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{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.
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Form \Form\ (f[^o]rm), v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Formed} (f[^o]rmd);
p. pr. & vb. n. {Forming}.] [F. former, L. formare, fr.
forma. See {Form}, n.]
1. To give form or shape to; to frame; to construct; to make;
to fashion.
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God formed man of the dust of the ground. --Gen. ii.
7.
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The thought that labors in my forming brain. --Rowe.
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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.
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'T is education forms the common mind. --Pope.
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Thus formed for speed, he challenges the wind.
--Dryden.
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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.
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The diplomatic politicians . . . who formed by far
the majority. --Burke.
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4. To provide with a form, as a hare. See {Form}, n., 9.
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The melancholy hare is formed in brakes and briers.
--Drayton.
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5. (Gram.) To derive by grammatical rules, as by adding the
proper suffixes and affixes.
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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.
[Webster 1913 Suppl.]


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