From Middle English shap, schape, from Old English ġesceap, from Proto-West Germanic *ga- + *skap, from Proto-Germanic *ga- + *skapą ("shape, nature, condition"), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kep-.

The verb is from Middle English shapen, schapen, from Old English scieppan, from Proto-Germanic *skapjaną, from the noun.

• (RP, America) enPR: shāp, IPA: /ʃeɪp/

shape

1. The status or condition of something

   The used bookshop wouldn’t offer much due to the poor shape of the book.

2. Condition of personal health, especially muscular health.

   The vet checked to see what kind of shape the animal was in.

   We exercise to keep in good physical shape.

3. A graphical representation of an object's form or its external boundary, outline, or external surface. Though fully descriptive when applied to objects within the geometrically abstract purview of reality as opposed to any scenario more concrete, it is well-understood that the introduction of the third dimension acting upon the physics of the object in the latter introduces the possibility of diminishing the term's descriptive power.

   What shape shall we use for the cookies? Stars, circles, or diamonds?

   • 2012, Robert Bradgate, Fidelma White, Margaret Llewelyn, Commercial Law‎, page 429:

     No design right can exist in features of appearance of a product which are solely dictated by the product's technical function (see Dyson Ltd v Vax Ltd [2010] EWHC 1923 (Pat) which held the shape of the Dyson vacuum cleaner to be unregisterable as it was purely functional) [...]

4. Form; formation.
   • 2006, Berdj Kenadjian, Martin Zakarian, From Darkness to Light:

     What if God's plans and actions do mold the shape of human events?

5. (iron manufacture) A rolled or hammered piece, such as a bar, beam, angle iron, etc., having a cross section different from merchant bar.
6. (iron manufacture) A piece which has been roughly forged nearly to the form it will receive when completely forged or fitted.
7. (cookery, now, rare) A mould for making blancmange, jelly, etc., or a piece of such food formed moulded into a particular shape.
   • 1918 March, Rebecca West [pseudonym; Cicily Isabel Fairfield], chapter IV, in The Return of the Soldier, 1st US edition, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC ↗, page 92 ↗:

     And if I 'm late for supper there 's a dish of macaroni cheese you must put in the oven and a tin of tomatoes to eat with it. And there is a little rhubarb and shape.

8. (gambling) A loaded die.
9. (programming) In the Hack programming language, a group of data fields each of which has a name and a data type.

• French: forme
• German: Zustand, Form
• Italian: condizione, stato
• Portuguese: condição, estado
• Russian: фо́рма
• Spanish: forma, estado

• French: forme
• German: Form
• Italian: forma
• Portuguese: estado
• Russian: фо́рма
• Spanish: forma

• French: forme
• German: Form, Gestalt
• Italian: forma, sagoma
• Portuguese: forma
• Russian: фо́рма
• Spanish: forma

shape (shapes, present participle shaping; simple past and past participle shaped)

1. (Northern England, Scotland, rare) To create or make.

   Earth was shapen by God for God's folk.

   • 1685, Satan's Invisible World Discoveredː

     Which the mighty God of heaven shope.

2. (transitive) To give something a shape and definition.
   • 1932, The American Scholar, United Chapters of Phi Beta Kappa, page 227:

     The professor never pretended to the academic prerogative of forcing his students into his own channels of reasoning; he entered into and helped shape the discussion but above all he made his men learn to think for themselves and rely upon their own intellectual judgments.

   Shape the dough into a pretzel.   For my art project, I plan to shape my clay lump into a bowl.

3. To form or manipulate something into a certain shape.
   • 1718, Mat[thew] Prior, “Solomon on the Vanity of the World. A Poem in Three Books.”, in Poems on Several Occasions, London: […] Jacob Tonson […], and John Barber […], →OCLC ↗, book II (Pleasure), page 437 ↗:

     Mature the Virgin was of Egypt's Race: / Grace ſhap'd her Limbs; and Beauty deck'd her Face: […]

4. (of a country, person, etc) To give influence to.
5. To suit; to be adjusted or conformable.
   • 1611 April (first recorded performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Cymbeline”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, [Act V, scene v]:

     The more of you 'twas felt, the more it shap'd / Unto my end of stealing them

6. (obsolete) To imagine; to conceive.
   • c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, [Act III, scene iii]:

     Oft my jealousy / Shapes faults that are not.

• (give shape) form, mold, (rare) shapen

• French: donner une forme, former
• German: formen
• Italian: modellare, dare forma, plasmare, sagomare, formare
• Portuguese: modelar
• Spanish: modelar, formar