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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. [1913 Webster]

The form of his visage was changed. --Dan. iii. 19. [1913 Webster]

And woven close close, both matter, form, and style. --Milton. [1913 Webster]

2. Constitution; mode of construction, organization, etc.; system; as, a republican form of government. [1913 Webster]

3. Established method of expression or practice; fixed way of proceeding; conventional or stated scheme; formula; as, a form of prayer. [1913 Webster]

Those whom form of laws Condemned to die. --Dryden. [1913 Webster]

4. Show without substance; empty, outside appearance; vain, trivial, or conventional ceremony; conventionality; formality; as, a matter of mere form. [1913 Webster]

Though well we may not pass upon his life Without the form of justice. --Shak. [1913 Webster]

5. Orderly arrangement; shapeliness; also, comeliness; elegance; beauty. [1913 Webster]

The earth was without form and void. --Gen. i. 2. [1913 Webster]

He hath no form nor comeliness. --Is. liii. 2. [1913 Webster]

6. A shape; an image; a phantom. [1913 Webster]

7. That by which shape is given or determined; mold; pattern; model. [1913 Webster]

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. [1913 Webster]

9. The seat or bed of a hare. [1913 Webster]

As in a form sitteth a weary hare. --Chaucer. [1913 Webster]

10. (Print.) The type or other matter from which an impression is to be taken, arranged and secured in a chase. [1913 Webster]

11. (Fine Arts) The boundary line of a material object. In (painting), more generally, the human body. [1913 Webster]

12. (Gram.) The particular shape or structure of a word or part of speech; as, participial forms; verbal forms. [1913 Webster]

13. (Crystallog.) The combination of planes included under a general crystallographic symbol. It is not necessarily a closed solid. [1913 Webster]

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. [1913 Webster]

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. [1913 Webster]

16. (Biol.) The peculiar characteristics of an organism as a type of others; also, the structure of the parts of an animal or plant. [1913 Webster]

{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. [1913 Webster]

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. [1913 Webster]

God formed man of the dust of the ground. --Gen. ii. 7. [1913 Webster]

The thought that labors in my forming brain. --Rowe. [1913 Webster]

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. [1913 Webster]

T is education forms the common mind. --Pope. [1913 Webster]

Thus formed for speed, he challenges the wind. --Dryden. [1913 Webster]

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. [1913 Webster]

The diplomatic politicians . . . who formed by far the majority. --Burke. [1913 Webster]

4. To provide with a form, as a hare. See Form, n., 9. [1913 Webster]

The melancholy hare is formed in brakes and briers. --Drayton. [1913 Webster]

5. (Gram.) To derive by grammatical rules, as by adding the proper suffixes and affixes. [1913 Webster]

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. [1913 Webster]

2. To run to a form, as a hare. --B. Jonson. [1913 Webster]

{To form on} (Mil.), to form a lengthened line with reference to (any given object) as a basis. [1913 Webster]