from
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Form \Form\ (f[^o]rm), v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Formed} (f[^o]rmd);
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.
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God formed man of the dust of the ground. --Gen. ii.
7.
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The thought that labors in my forming brain. --Rowe.
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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.
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'T is education forms the common mind. --Pope.
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Thus formed for speed, he challenges the wind.
--Dryden.
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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.
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The diplomatic politicians . . . who formed by far
the majority. --Burke.
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4. To provide with a form, as a hare. See {Form}, n., 9.
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The melancholy hare is formed in brakes and briers.
--Drayton.
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5. (Gram.) To derive by grammatical rules, as by adding the
proper suffixes and affixes.
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6. (Elec.) 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.
[Webster 1913 Suppl.]