

Dictionary Information: Definition Form
Thesaurus: Formation
Description and Meaning: The Formations of the Self

  Form (Form) (fo¯rm; in senses 8 & 9, often fo¯rm in England), 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." Dan. iii. 19. "And woven close close, both matter, form, and style." Milton.
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.
9. The seat or bed of a hare. "As in a form sitteth a weary hare." Chaucer.

Form (Form) (?), v. t.
[imp. & p. p. Formed (?); p. pr. & vb. n. 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." 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.
Form (Form), v. i.



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