a. [f. mod.L. amorphus, a. Gr. ἄμορφ-ος shapeless (f. ἀ priv. + μορφή form) + -OUS. Cf. mod.Fr. amorphe.] Not in J.
1. Having no determinate shape, shapeless, unshapen; irregularly shaped, unshapely.
1731. Bailey, Amorphous, without form or shape, ill-shapen.
1791. D’Israeli, Cur. Lit. (1866), 148/1. An amorphous hat, very much worn.
1831. Carlyle, Sart. Res. (1858), 178. The enormous, amorphous Plum-pudding, more like a Scottish Haggis.
1870. Lowell, Among My Books, Ser. I. (1873), 203. That quality in man which … gives classic shape to our own amorphous imaginings.
1878. Black, Green Past., xxxviii. 301. All three wore heavy and amorphous garments.
b. Belonging to no particular type or pattern; anomalous, unclassifiable.
1803. Phil. Trans., XCIV. 38. This kind of attraction is either regular, irregular, or amorphous.
1845. Carlyle, Cromwell (1871), I. 63. A morose, amorphous, cynical Law-pedant.
2. Min. & Chem. Not composed of crystals in physical structure; uncrystallized, massive.
1801. Bournon, Arseniates, in Phil. Trans., XCI. 171. The matrix … siliceous; sometimes crystalline; and sometimes in an amorphous mass.
1842. W. Grove, Corr. Phys. Forces (ed. 6), 84. An opaque amorphous state, as graphite or charcoal.
1870. Tyndall, Heat, xiii. § 639. A fragment of almost black amorphous phosphorus.
1879. Rutley, Stud. Rocks, x. 123. Augite often contains inclosures of amorphous glass.
3. Geol. Occurring in a continuous mass, without stratification, cleavage, or other division into similar parts.
1830. Lyell, Princ. Geol., I. 346. The uppermost portion, often forty feet or more in thickness, is an amorphous mass passing downwards into lava, irregularly prismatic.
1853. Phillips, Rivers, etc. Yorksh., iv. 124. These perishing cliffs show at the bottom the amorphous boulder-clay.
4. Biol. Without the definite shape or organization found in most higher animals and plants.
1848. Dana, Zoophytes, 711. The structure was completely amorphous.
1868. W. S. O., trans. Ocean World, iv. 74. They are formed of a sort of animated jelly, amorphous and diaphanous.
1877. Roberts, Handbk. Med., I. 51. Coagulated fibrin, either amorphous or fibrillated.
5. fig. Ill-assorted, ill-digested, unorganized.
1837. Carlyle, Fr. Rev. (1872), III. III. v. 121. An amorphous Sansculottism taking form.
1869. Lecky, Europ. Mor., I. i. 247. [Rome’s] population soon became an amorphous, heterogeneous mass.
