(n.) A suffix used to denote in the form / shape of, resembling,
etc.; as, valiform; oviform.
(n.) 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.
(n.) Constitution; mode of construction, organization, etc.;
system; as, a republican form of government.
(n.) Established method of expression or practice; fixed way of
proceeding; conventional or stated scheme; formula; as, a form of
prayer.
(n.) Show without substance; empty, outside appearance; vain,
trivial, or conventional ceremony; conventionality; formality; as, a
matter of mere form.
(n.) Orderly arrangement; shapeliness; also, comeliness; elegance;
beauty.
(n.) A shape; an image; a phantom.
(n.) That by which shape is given or determined; mold; pattern;
model.
(n.) A long seat; a bench; hence, a rank of students in a school;
a class; also, a class or rank in society.
(n.) The seat or bed of a hare.
(n.) The type or other matter from which an impression is to be
taken, arranged and secured in a chase.
(n.) The boundary line of a material object. In painting, more
generally, the human body.
(n.) The particular shape or structure of a word or part of
speech; as, participial forms; verbal forms.
(n.) The combination of planes included under a general
crystallographic symbol. It is not necessarily a closed solid.
(n.) 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.
(n.) 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.
(n.) The peculiar characteristics of an organism as a type of
others; also, the structure of the parts of an animal or plant.
(n.) To give form or shape to; to frame; to construct; to make; to
fashion.
(n.) 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.
(n.) 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.
(n.) To provide with a form, as a hare. See Form, n., 9.
(n.) To derive by grammatical rules, as by adding the proper
suffixes and affixes.
(v. i.) To take a form, definite shape, or arrangement; as, the
infantry should form in column.
(v. i.) To run to a form, as a hare.
