FORM, n. [L. forma.]

1. The shape or external appearance of a body; the figure, as defined by lines and angles; that manner of being peculiar to each body, which exhibits it to the eye as distinct from every other body. Thus we speak of the form of a circle, the form of a square or triangle, a circular form, the form of the head or of the human body, a handsome form, an ugly form, a frightful form. Matter is the basis or substratum of bodies; form is the particular disposition of matter in each body which distinguishes its appearance from that of every other body. The form of his visage was changed. Dan. iii. After that he appeared in another form to two of them, as they walked. Mark xvi.
2. Manner of arranging particulars; disposition of particular things; as, a form of words or expressions.
3. Model; draught; pattern. Hold fast the form of sound words, which thou hast beard of me. 2 Tim. i.
4. Beauty; elegance; splendor; dignity. He hath no form nor comeliness. Is. liii.
5. Regularity; method; order. This is a rough draught to be reduced to form.
6. External appearance without the essential qualities; empty show. Having the farm of godliness, but denying the power thereat 2 Tim. ii.
7. Stated method; established practice; ritual or prescribed mode; as, the forms of public worship; the forms of judicial proceeding; forms of civility.
8. Ceremony; as, it is a mere matter of form.
9. Determinate shape. The earth was without form, and void. Gen. i.
10. Likeness; image. Who, being in the form of God –. Phil. ii. He took on him the form of a servant. Ibm.
11. Manner; system; as, a form of government; a monarchical or republican form.
12. Manner of arrangement; disposition of component parts; as, the interior form or structure of the flesh or bones, or of other bodies.
13. A long seat; a bench without a back. Watts.
14. In schools, a class; a rank of students. Dryden.
15. The seat or bed of a hare. Prior.
16. A mold; something to give shape, or on which things are fashioned. Encyc.
17. In printing, an assemblage of types, composed and arranged in order, disposed into pages or columns, and inclosed and locked in a chase, to receive an impression.
18. Essential form, is that mode of existence which constitutes a thing what it is, and without which it could not exist. Thus water and light have each its particular form of existence, and the parts of water being decomposed, it ceases to be water. Accidental form is not necessary to the existence of a body. Earth is earth still, whatever may be its color.

To take a form.

1. To make or cause to exist in a particular manner. And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground. Gen. ii.
2. To shape; to mold or fashion into a particular shape or state; as, to form an image of stone or clay.
3. To plan to scheme; to modify. Dryden.
4. To arrange; to combine in a particular manner; as, to form a line or square of troops.
5. To adjust; to settle. Our differences with the Romanists are thus formed Into an interest. Decay of Piety.
6. To contrive; to invent; as, to form a design or scheme.
7. To make up; to frame; to settle by deductions of reason; as, to form an opinion or judgment; to form an estimate.
8. To mold; to model by instruction and discipline; as, to form the mind to virtuous habits by education.
9. To combine; to unite individuals into a collective body; as, to form a society for missions.
10. To make; to establish. The subscribers are formed by law into a corporation. They have formed regulations for their government.
11. To compile; as, to form a body of laws or customs; to form a digest.
12. To constitute; to make. Duplicity forms no part of his character. These facts form a safe foundation for our conclusions. The senate and house of representatives form the legislative body.
13. In grammar, to make by derivation, or by affixes or prefixes. L. do, in the preterit, forms dedi.
14. To enact; to make; to ordain; as, to form a law or an edict.

1. A suffix used to denote in the form or shape of, resembling, etc.; as, valiform; oviform.
2. 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. 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.

4. To take a form, definite shape, or arrangement; as, the infantry should form in column.
5. 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.
6. Constitution; mode of construction, organization, etc.; system; as, a republican form of government.
7. 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.

8. To run to a form, as a hare.
   
   
   B. Jonson.

   To form on (Mil.), to form a lengthened line with reference to (any given object) as a basis.

9. 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.

10. 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.

11. 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.

12. To provide with a form, as a hare. See Form, n., 9.
    
    

    The melancholy hare is formed in brakes and briers. Drayton.

13. 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.

14. To derive by grammatical rules, as by adding the proper suffixes and affixes.
15. A shape; an image; a phantom.
16. That by which shape is given or determined; mold; pattern; model.
17. 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.
18. The seat or bed of a hare.
    
    

    As in a form sitteth a weary hare. Chaucer.

19. The type or other matter from which an impression is to be taken, arranged and secured in a chase.
20. The boundary line of a material object. In painting, more generally, the human body.
21. The particular shape or structure of a word or part of speech; as, participial forms; verbal forms.
22. The combination of planes included under a general crystallographic symbol. It is not necessarily a closed solid.
23. 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.
24. 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.
25. The peculiar characteristics of an organism as a type of others; also, the structure of the parts of an animal or plant.
    
    

    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.