English
form
see also: FORM
Etymology

From Middle English forme, borrowed from Old French forme, from Latin fōrma.

Pronunciation
  • (RP) enPR: fôrm, IPA: /fɔːm/
  • (America) enPR: fôrm, IPA: /fɔɹm/, [fo̞ɹm]
  • (non-horse-hoarse, rhotic) IPA: /fo(ː)ɹm/
Noun

form

  1. (heading, physical) To do with shape.
    1. The shape or visible structure of a thing or person.
      • 1699, William Temple, Heads designed for an essay on conversations‎:
        Study gives strength to the mind; conversation, grace: the first apt to give stiffness, the other suppleness: one gives substance and form to the statue, the other polishes it.
    2. A thing that gives shape to other things as in a mold.
    3. Regularity, beauty or elegance.
    4. (philosophy) The inherent nature of an object; that which the mind itself contributes as the condition of knowing; that in which the essence of a thing consists.
    5. Characteristics not involving atomic components.
    6. (dated) A long bench with no back.
      • 1981, GB Edwards, The Book of Ebenezer Le Page, New York, published 2007, page 10:
        I can see the old schoolroom yet: the broken-down desks and the worn-out forms with knots in that got stuck into your backside […].
      • 2010, Stephen Fry, The Fry Chronicles: An Autobiography:
        The prefect grabbed me by the shoulders and steered me down a passageway, and down another and finally through a door that led into a long, low dining-room crowded with loudly breakfasting boys sitting on long, shiny oak forms, as benches used to be called.
    7. (fine arts) The boundary line of a material object. In painting, more generally, the human body.
    8. (crystallography) The combination of planes included under a general crystallographic symbol. It is not necessarily a closed solid.
  2. (social) To do with structure or procedure.
    1. An order of doing things, as in religious ritual.
    2. Established method of expression or practice; fixed way of proceeding; conventional or stated scheme; formula.
      • 1697, Virgil, translated by John Dryden, The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC ↗:
        Those whom form of laws
        Condemned to die.
      • 1897, Richard Marsh, The Beetle:
        [H]e sprang into the road, without previously going through the empty form of advising the driver of his intention, to pick [his hat] up.
    3. Constitution; mode of construction, organization, etc.; system.
      a republican form of government
    4. Show without substance; empty, outside appearance; vain, trivial, or conventional ceremony; conventionality; formality.
      a matter of mere form
      • c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, [Act III, scene vii]:
        Though well we may not pass upon his life
        Without the form of justice.
    5. (archaic) A class or rank in society.
      • 1724, [Gilbert] Burnet, edited by [Gilbert Burnet Jr.], Bishop Burnet’s History of His Own Time. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: […] Thomas Ward […], →OCLC ↗:
        ladies of a high form
    6. (UK) Past history (in a given area); a habit of doing something.
    7. Level of performance.
      The team's form has been poor this year.
      The orchestra was on top form this evening.
    8. (UK, education) A class or year of school pupils (often preceded by an ordinal number to specify the year, as in sixth form).
      • 1928, George Bickerstaff, The mayor, and other folk:
        One other day after afternoon school, Mr. Percival came behind me and put his hand on me. "Let me see, what's your name? Which form are you in? […]"
      • 1976, Ronald King, School and college: studies of post-sixteen education:
        From the sixth form will come the scholars and the administrators.
  3. A blank document or template to be filled in by the user.
    To apply for the position, complete the application form.
  4. A specimen document to be copied or imitated.
  5. (grammar) A grouping of words which maintain grammatical context in different usages; the particular shape or structure of a word or part of speech.
    participial forms;  verb forms
  6. The den or home of a hare.
    • 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 29, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC ↗:
      Being one day a hunting, I found a Hare sitting in her forme […].
    • 1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC ↗:
      , I.iii.1.2:
      The Egyptians therefore in their hieroglyphics expressed a melancholy man by a hare sitting in her form, as being a most timorous and solitary creature.
    • 1974, Lawrence Durrell, Monsieur, Faber & Faber, published 1992, page 275:
      Hares left their snug ‘forms’ in the cold grass.
  7. (computing, programming) A window or dialogue box.
    • 1998, Gary Cornell, Visual Basic 6 from the ground up, page 426:
      While it is quite amazing how much one can do with Visual Basic with the code attached to a single form, to take full advantage of VB you'll need to start using multiple forms and having the code on all the forms in your project interact.
    • 2010, Neil Smyth, C# Essentials:
      Throughout this chapter we will work with a form in a new project.
  8. (taxonomy) An infraspecific rank.
  9. (printing, dated) The type or other matter from which an impression is to be taken, arranged and secured in a chase.
  10. (geometry) A quantic.
  11. (sports, fitness) A specific way of performing a movement.
Synonyms Related terms Translations Translations Verb

form (forms, present participle forming; simple past and past participle formed)

  1. (transitive) To assume (a certain shape or visible structure).
    When you kids form a straight line I'll hand out the lollies.
  2. (transitive) To give (a shape or visible structure) to a thing or person.
    Roll out the dough to form a thin sheet.
  3. (intransitive) To take shape.
    When icicles start to form on the eaves you know the roads will be icy.
  4. To put together or bring into being; assemble.
    The socialists did not have enough MPs to form a government.
    Paul McCartney and John Lennon formed The Beatles in Liverpool in 1960.
  5. (transitive, linguistics) To create (a word) by inflection or derivation.
    By adding "-ness", you can form a noun from an adjective.
  6. (transitive) To constitute, to compose, to make up.
    Teenagers form the bulk of extreme traffic offenders.
    • 1795–1797, Edmund Burke, “(please specify |letter=1 to 4)”, in [Letters on a Regicide Peace], London: [Rivington]:
      the diplomatic politicians […] who formed by far the majority
    • 1879, R[ichard] J[efferies], chapter 1, in The Amateur Poacher, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], →OCLC ↗:
      But then I had the [massive] flintlock by me for protection. ¶ […] The linen-press and a chest on the top of it formed, however, a very good gun-carriage; and, thus mounted, aim could be taken out of the window at the old mare feeding in the meadow below by the brook, and a 'bead' could be drawn upon Molly, the dairymaid, kissing the fogger behind the hedge, […].
    • 1948 May, Stanley Pashko, “The Biggest Family”, in Boys' Life, Volume 38, Number 5, Boy Scouts of America, ISSN 0006-8608, p.10 ↗:
      Insects form the biggest family group in nature's kingdom, and also the oldest.
  7. To mould or model by instruction or discipline.
    Singing in a choir helps to form a child's sociality.
    • 1731–1735, Alexander Pope, Moral Essays
      'Tis education forms the common mind.
    • 1697, Virgil, “The Fourth Book of the Georgics”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC ↗:
      Thus formed for speed, he challenges the wind.
  8. To provide (a hare) with a form.
    • 1612, Michael Drayton, chapter 2, in [John Selden], editor, Poly-Olbion. Or A Chorographicall Description of Tracts, Riuers, Mountaines, Forests, and Other Parts of this Renowned Isle of Great Britaine, […], London: […] H[umphrey] L[ownes] for Mathew Lownes; I[ohn] Browne; I[ohn] Helme; I[ohn] Busbie, published 1613, →OCLC ↗:
      The melancholy hare is formed in brakes and briers.
  9. (electrical, historical, transitive) To treat (plates) to prepare them 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 later the plates or grids were 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.
Conjugation
Conjugation of form

infinitive (to) form
present tense past tense
1st-person singular form formed
2nd-person singular

 form, formest†

 formed, formedst†
3rd-person singular

 forms, formeth†

 formed
plural

 form

subjunctive

 form

formed
imperative

 form

—
participles

 forming

 formed

†Archaic or obsolete.

Synonyms Related terms Translations Translations Translations Translations
FORM
Noun

form (uncountable)

  1. Acronym of family, occupation, recreation, motivation: a set of potential topics of conversation for use by salespeople etc.


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