Form n. 1.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." "And woven close close, both matter, form, and style."
2.Constitution; mode of construction, organization, etc.; system; as, a republican form of government.
3.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."
4.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."
5.Orderly arrangement; shapeliness; also, comeliness; elegance; beauty. "The earth was without form and void." "He hath no form nor comeliness."
6.A shape; an image; a phantom.
7.That by which shape is given or determined; mold; pattern; model.
8.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."
9.The seat or bed of a hare. "As in a form sitteth a weary hare."
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.
Good form or Bad form, the general appearance, condition or action, originally of horses, afterwards 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.
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