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.-constitution; mode of construction, organization, etc.; system; as, a republican form of government.-established method of expression or practice; fixed way of proceeding; conventional or stated scheme; formula; as, a form of prayer.-show without substance; empty, outside appearance; vain, trivial, or conventional ceremony; conventionality; formality; as, a matter of mere form.-orderly arrangement; shapeliness; also, comeliness; elegance; beauty.-a shape; an image; a phantom.-that by which shape is given or determined; mold; pattern; model.-a long seat; a bench; hence, a rank of students in a school; a class; also, a class or rank in society.-the seat or bed of a hare.-the type or other matter from which an impression is to be taken, arranged and secured in a chase.-the boundary line of a material object. in painting, more generally, the human body.-the particular shape or structure of a word or part of speech; as, participial forms; verbal forms.-the combination of planes included under a general crystallographic symbol. it is not necessarily a closed solid.-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.-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.-the peculiar characteristics of an organism as a type of others; also, the structure of the parts of an animal or plant.-to give form or shape to; to frame; to construct; to make; to fashion.-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.-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.-to provide with a form, as a hare. see form, n., 9.-to derive by grammatical rules, as by adding the proper suffixes and affixes.-to take a form, definite shape, or arrangement; as, the infantry should form in column.-to run to a form, as a hare.