As in a form sitteth a weary hare.
Chaucer.
10. (Print.) The type or other matter from which an impression is to be
taken, arranged and secured in a chase.
11. (Fine Arts) The boundary line of a material object. In painting,
more generally, the human body.
12. (Gram.) The particular shape or structure of a word or part of
speech; as, participial forms; verbal forms.
13. (Crystallog.) The combination of planes included under a general
crystallographic symbol. It is not necessarily a closed solid.
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.
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.
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, atterwards 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.
Form (fÙrm), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Formed (fÙrmd); 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.
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.