[ad. L. conformātiōn-em, n. of action from conformāre to conform: so in F. (since 16th c. in Littré).]
1. The action of conforming or bringing into conformity (to); adjustment in form or character to some pattern or example; adaptation.
1511. Colet, Serm. Conf. & Ref., in Phenix (1708), II. 3. I shall speak … Of Conformation … Be not conform’d to this World.
a. 1637. B. Jonson, Discov., Poesis iv. Wks. (Rtldg.), 763/1. If to an excellent nature, there happen an accession, or conformation of learning and discipline.
1660. R. Coke, Justice Vind., 6. Obedience … is the conformation of ones will to the rules & precepts of his superior.
1677. Hale, Prim. Orig. Man., I. i. 9. They distort, stretch and reduce the Orders of things in a conformation to those pre-conceived Suppositions.
1741. Watts, Improv. Mind (1801), 60. Virtue and vice, sin and holiness, and the conformation of our hearts and lives to the duties of true religion and morality, are things of far more consequence than all the furniture of our understandings.
b. Hist. of Lang. Form-assimilation under the influence of analogy.
1869. March, A. S. Gramm., 83. Plural first person -m changes to -ð (conformation with 2d and 3d persons).
2. The symmetrical formation or fashioning of a thing in all its parts; putting into form.
1615. Crooke, Body of Man, 268. Male children … haue their conformation the thirtieth day.
1681. trans. Willis’ Rem. Med. Wks., Voc., Conformation, the framing, fashioning, or disposition of a thing.
1857–8. Sears, Athan., xi. 93. Ever and everywhere body is the creation of life, and is the conformation of its instincts and affections.
3. The manner in which a thing is formed with respect to the disposition of its parts; form depending upon arrangement of parts; structure, organization.
‘In Anatomy it is taken for the Figure or Disposition of the Parts of a Humane Body; and by some Writers in the Art of Physick, for an Essential Property of Health or Sicknesse’ (Phillips, 1706).
1646. Sir T. Browne, Pseud. Ep., III. xvii. 151. Many wayes of Coition, according to divers shapes and different conformations.
1690. Locke, Hum. Und., II. xxvii. § 29. A rational Spirit … united to a Body of a certain Conformation of Parts.
1695. Woodward, Nat. Hist. Earth (J.). Where there happens to be such a structure and conformation of the earth.
1732. Arbuthnot, Rules of Diet, 332. A bad Conformation of the Lungs and Thorax commonly attended with an asthma.
1791. Burke, App. Whigs, Wks. VI. 55. Government wants amendment in its conformation.
1871. Morley, Voltaire (1886), 1. The mind and spiritual conformation of France.
1874. Boutell, Arms & Arm., ix. 179. This conformation of the blade has the advantage of placing the centre of gravity in the hilt.
