Form sb.

Forms: 3–7 forme, 4– form; also 3–4 furme, 3–7 fourme, 5 foorme. [a. OF. fo(u)rme, furme, ad. L. forma, primarily shape, configuration; the derived senses below were for the most part developed in class, or post-class. Lat.

  Some philologists refer the word to the root of ferīre to strike; others compare it with Skr. dharman neut., holding, position, order, f. dhar, dhr, to hold. The word has been adopted, and is in familiar use, in all the Rom. and mod. Teut. langs.: Pr., Sp., Pg., It. forma (Sp. Mech. also horma), Ger., Sw., Da. form, Du. vorm.]

  I.  Shape, arrangement of parts.

  1.  The visible aspect of a thing; now usually in narrower sense, shape, configuration, as distinguished from color; occasionally, the shape or figure of the body as distinguished from the face.

1297.  R. Glouc. (Rolls), 3326.

a. 1300.  Fragm. Pop. Sc. (Wright), 311.

c. 1325.  English Metrical Homilies, 92.

c. 1400.  Rom. Rose, 2809.

c. 1400.  Lanfranc’s Cirurg., 127. Þis schal be þe foorme of a trepane.

1562.  Turner, Herbal, II. 99. The whyte asp differeth … from the blak … in the form of the lefe.

1585.  T. Washington, trans. Nicholay’s Voy. Turkie, I. viii. 7 b. A great building made in forme of a Citadelle to commaund the towne and entrie of the heauen.

1697.  Dryden, Virg. Georg., IV. 587.

1750.  Johnson, Rambler, No. 82, 29 Dec., ¶ 2. As I grew older I was more thoughtful and serious, and instead of amusing myself with puerile diversions, made collections of natural rarities, and never walked into the fields without bringing home stones of remarkable forms, or insects of some uncommon species.

1849.  Macaulay, Hist. Eng., II. 257. Her face was expressive: her form wanted no feminine charm.

1875.  Jowett, Plato (ed. 2), III. 571, Timaeus, Introduction. The world was made in the form of a globe, and all the elements, both material and immaterial, were exhausted in the work of creation.

  b.  pl. The shape of the different parts of a body. [So Fr. les formes du corps.]

1837.  Lane, Mod. Egypt., I. 50. In the Egyptian females the forms of womanhood begin to develop themselves about the ninth or tenth year.

1871.  Freeman, Norm. Conq. (1876), IV. xviii. 211. The slope of the hill and the long line of road at its foot are covered by the buildings of the city, its houses, many of them presenting forms dear to the antiquary.

  c.  spec. in Crystallogr. (See quots.)

1878.  Gurney, Crystallogr., 38. This group of faces, which are required to co-exist with a given face by the law or type of symmetry of the crystallographic system to which the crystal belongs, is called a crystallographic form.

1878.  Huxley, Physiography, 60. A set of faces symmetrically related, such as the six faces of the prism of rock-crystal, is called technically a form; and the faces of any given form, however irregular in size and shape, are always inclined to one another at the same angle.

  d.  Abstractly considered as one of the elements of the plastic arts.

1851.  Ruskin, Mod. Paint., II. III. II. iv. § 9. Form we find abstractedly considered by the sculptor.

1879.  Rood, Chromatics, xviii. 314. In decorative art the element of colour is more important than that of form: it is essential that the lines should be graceful and show fancy or even poetic feeling; but we do not demand, or even desire, that they should be expressive of form in a realistic sense. Just the reverse is true in painting: here, colour is subordinate to form.

  † e.  Beauty, comeliness, [so L. forma.] Obs.

1382.  Wyclif, Wisd. viii. 2. This [wisdom] I loouede, and soȝte it out fro my ȝouthe; and I soȝte to taken it a spouse to me, and loouere I am mad of the foorme of it.

1568.  T. Howell, Arb. Amitie (1879), 19.

1611.  Bible, Isa. liii. 2. Hee hath no forme nor comelinesse.

1632.  Randolph, Jealous Lovers, II. vii. Wks. (1875), 100.

  † f.  Style of dress, costume. Obs. rare^–1.

1664.  Pepys, Diary, 15 July. There comes out of the chayre-roome Mrs. Stewart, in a most lovely form…. A lovely creature she in this dress seemed to be.

  † 2.  An image, representation, or likeness (of a body). Also fig. Obs.

a. 1225.  Ancr. R., 138. Ure deorewurðe goste, Godes owune furme.

c. 1290.  S. Eng. Leg., I. 25/43. Ane Croyz of seluer with þe fourme of god huy leten a-rere.

1340.  Ayenb., 87. Oure riȝte vader is kyng of hevene þet made þet body of þe erþe and ssop þe zaule to his anlycnisse an to his fourme.

c. 1400.  Maundev. (Roxb.), viii. 32. In þe whilk roche es þe prynte and þe fourme of his body.

c. 1600.  Shaks., Sonnet ix.

1610.  Guillim, Heraldry, I. vii. (1611), 29. An Escocheon is the forme or representation of a Shield of what kind soever.

  3.  A body considered in respect to its outward shape and appearance; esp. that of a living being, a person.

1297.  R. Glouc. (Rolls), 4217.

c. 1385.  Chaucer, L. G. W., 1768, Lucretia.

c. 1400.  Lanfranc’s Cirurg., 27. Þat þei moun bynde manye þingis in oon foorme, as þe panicle of þe heed byndiþ seuene boones.

1630.  Massinger, Unnat. Combat, V. ii.

1697.  Dryden, Æneid, VI. 388.

1817.  Coleridge, Lewti, 1.

1841.  Lane, Arab. Nts., I. 77. To his surprise, this very form stood before him at the approach of night.

  4.  Philos. a. In the Scholastic philosophy: The essential determinant principle of a thing; that which makes anything (matter) a determinate species or kind of being; the essential creative quality.

  This use of form (Aristotle’s μορφή or εἶδος) and matter (ὕλη) is a metaphorical extension of their popular use. In ordinary speech, a portion of matter, stuff, or material, becomes a ‘thing’ by virtue of having a particular ‘form’ or shape; by altering the form, the matter remaining unchanged, we make a new ‘thing.’ This language, primarily applied only to objects of sense, was in philosophical use extended to objects of thought: every ‘thing’ or entity was viewed as consisting of two elements, its form by virtue of which it was different from, and its matter which it had in common with, others.

c. 1385.  Chaucer, L. G. W., 2228, Philomene.

1413.  Pilgr. Sowle (Caxton, 1483), IV. xxv. 71. He [the body] was only maater to whiche thou [the soul] were the fourme, of whome now is he naked. Another fourme—accidentale of lytel valewe—maye he wel haue, but forme substantcial is hit nought that he hath.

1570.  Dee, Math. Pref., *j. Arise, clime, ascend, and mount vp (with Speculatiue winges) in spirit, to behold in the Glas of Creation, the Forme of Formes, the Exemplar Number of all thinges Numerable.

1594.  Hooker, Eccl. Pol., I. iii. § 4, note. Form in other creatures is a thing proportionable unto the Soul in living creatures. Sensible it is not, nor otherwise discernible than only by effects. According to the diversity of inward forms, things of the world are distinguished into their kinds.

1605.  P. Woodhouse, Flea (1877), 10.

1643.  Sir T. Browne, Relig. Med., I. § 33. I beleeve … that they [spirits] know things by their formes, and define by specificall difference what we describe by accidents and properties.

1645.  Milton, Tetrach. (1851), 169. The Form by which the thing is what it is.

1665.  Glanvill, Scepsis Scientifica, xxii. 137. He [Aristotle] affirms, the Soul cannot be separated from the Body, because ’tis it’s Form.

1676.  Bates, Exist. God, iv. 66. Supposing the self subsistence of Matter from Eternity; could the World, full of innumerable Forms, spring by an Impetus from a dead, formless Principle?

1690.  Locke, Hum. Und., III. vi. § 10. Those therefore who have been taught, that the several Species of Substances had their distinct internal substantial Forms.

  b.  So in Theol., a sacrament is said to consist of matter (as the water in baptism, the bread and wine in the Eucharist) and form, which is furnished by certain essential formulary words.

1597.  Hooker, Eccl. Pol., V. lviii. § 2. To make complete the outward substance of a Sacrament there is required an outward form, which form sacramental Elements receive from sacramental Words. Ibid. (a. 1600), VI. iv. § 3. For as much as a Sacrament is compleat, having the matter and form which it ought, what should lead them to set down any other parts of Sacramental Repentance, then Confession and Absolution, as Durandus hath done?

1727–41.  in Chambers, Cycl.

  c.  In Bacon’s modification of the Scholastic use: The real or objective conditions on which a sensible quality or body depends for its existence, and the knowledge of which enables it to be freely produced.

1605.  Bacon, Adv. Learn., II. vii. § 5. To enquire the Form of a lion, of an oak, of gold, nay of water, of air, is a vain pursuit: but to enquire the Forms of sense, of voluntary motion, of vegetation, of colours, of gravity and levity, of density, of tenuity, of heat, of cold, and all other natures and qualities, which like an alphabet are not many, and of which the essences (upheld by matter) of all creatures do consist; to enquire I say the true forms of these, is that part of Metaphysic which we now define of.

  d.  In the usage of Kant and Kantians: That factor of knowledge which gives reality and objectivity to the thing known, and which Kant regards as due to mind, or as (in his sense) subjective; the formative principle which holds together the several elements of a thing.

1803.  Edin. Rev., I. 258. The subjective elements are by Kant denominated forms.

1862.  H. Spencer, First Princ., I. iii. § 5 (1875), 49. If Space and Time are forms of thought, they can never be thought of; since it is impossible for anything to be at once the form of thought and the matter of thought.

1874.  Sidgwick, Meth. Ethics, I. ix. 93. This notion of ‘ought,’ when once it has been developed, is a necessary form of our moral apprehension, just as space is now a necessary form of our sense-perceptions.

1889.  Caird, Philos. Kant, I. 279. The mind is never able to consummate the synthesis of its object with itself, and the forms of unity by which it determines sensible objects still leave these objects inadequately determined, according to that idea of knowledge which it carries with itself. Ibid., I. 349. The main point which Kant seeks to prove is that the categories or forms of synthesis which belong to the pure understanding have an objective value.

  5.  The particular character, nature, structure, or constitution of a thing; the particular mode in which a thing exists or manifests itself. Phr. in the form of, to take the form of.

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 1591 (Gött.).

c. 1310.  Poems Hart. MS., 2253 (Böddeker), 193.

c. 1400.  Lanfranc’s Cirurg., 81. Alwey stiryng, til it be perfiȝtly an oynement & come into þe foorme of an oynement.

1559.  W. Cunningham, Cosmogr. Glasse, Pref. A vj b. I have reduced it into the forme of a Dialoge.

1605.  Camden, Rem., 8. When they had gained them, and brought them into forme of a Province, they found them so warlike a people, that the Romans levied as many Cohorts, Companies and, Ensignes of Britains from hence for the service of Armenia, Ægypt, Illyricum, their frontire Countries, as from any other of their Provinces whatsoever.

1756.  C. Lucas, Ess. Waters, III. 117. Iron is not, in the metallic form, produced by nature.

1850.  McCosh, Div. Govt., I. ii. (1874), 53. Pantheism is the form in which infidelity prevails on the Continent of Europe in the present day; and by its illusions, it satisfies many of those appetencies of the mind which would shrink from gaunt and grim Atheism.

1860–1.  Flo. Nightingale, Nursing, 50. An egg, whipped up with wine, is often the only form in which they can take this kind of nourishment.

1875.  Jowett, Plato (ed. 2), I. 399, Phaedo, Introduction. The Dialogue necessarily takes the form of a narrative, because Socrates has to be described acting as well as speaking.

  b.  One of the different modes in which a thing exists or manifests itself; a species, kind, or variety.

1542.  Recorde, Gt. Artes, 116 b. This sorte is in two fourmes commenly. The one by lynes, and the other without lynes.

1597.  Morley, Introd. Mus., 76. In descanting you must not onelie seeke true cordes, but formalitie also: that is, to make your descant carrie some forme of relation to the plaine song.

1651.  Hobbes, Leviath., II. xviii. 94. The Power in all formes [of Common-wealth], if they be perfect enough to protect them, is the same.

1733.  Pope, Ess. Man, III. 303.

1821.  J. Marshall, Const. Opin. (1839), 256. To this argument, in all its forms, the same answer may be given.

1843.  C. H. Smith, Naturalist’s Library, I. 291. The group is intermediate between the bisontine form and the bovine.

1849.  Macaulay, Hist. Eng., I. 157. They had refused to declare that any form of ecclesiastical polity was of divine origin.

1855.  Bain, The Senses and the Intellect, II. ii. § 8. The sensation of wetness seems to be nothing else than a form of cold.

  c.  Gram. (a) One of the various modes of pronunciation, spelling, or inflection under which a word may appear. (b) In generalized sense: The external characteristics of words (esp. with reference to their inflections), as distinguished from their signification.

1861.  M. Müller, Lect. Sci. Lang., vii. 255. The Chinese sound ta means without any change of form, great, greatness, and to be great.

1889.  F. Hall, in The Nation (N.Y.), 28 March, XLVIII. 267/3. In 1530, Palsgrave recorded the form topsy tyrey. A little later the word became very popular.

  6.  † a. gen. A grade or degree of rank, quality, excellence, or eminence; one of the classes forming a series arranged in order of merit, official dignity, proficiency in learning, etc. Obs.

[So late L. forma prima, secunda, etc., used of the various orders in the clergy, etc.]

c. 1430.  Lydg., Bochas, I. viii. (1544), 12 b.

1579.  E. K., Gen. Argt. Spenser’s Sheph. Cal., § 3. These xij. Æclogues euery where answering to the seasons of the twelue monthes may be well deuided into three formes or ranckes.

c. 1609.  Beaumont Papers (1884), 21. From Sir Richard Beaumont I looke for no ordinarie cocke, having of myne owne of that fourme more then I know what to doe withall.

1662.  Stillingfl., Orig. Sacr., II. ii. § 6. Certainly this kind of Learning deserves the highest form among the difficiles Nugæ, and all these Hieroglyphicks put together, will make but one good one, and that should be for Labour lost.

1687.  Burnet, Reply to Varillas, 123. He cannot bear my saying, that such matters were above men of his form.

1700.  Pepys, Lett. in Diary, VI. 225. Thinking, I take it, is working, though many forms beneath what my Lady and you are doing.

1702.  Steele, Funeral, II. (1704), 40. The Tongue is the Instrument of Speech to us of a lower Form.

1710.  Acc. Last Distemp. Tom Whigg, I. 22. The Doctor was a Physician of the first Form, who never receiv’d his Informations from a second Hand, never consulted with others of his own Profession; so that where the Patient was under an Incapacity of explaining his Case himself, the Doctor’s way was to trust entirely to the force of his own Genius.

  b.  spec. One of the numbered classes into which the pupils of a school are divided according to their degree of proficiency.

  In English Schools the sixth form is usually the highest; when a larger number of classes is required, the numbered ‘forms’ are divided into ‘upper’ and ‘lower,’ etc. The word is usually explained as meaning originally ‘a number of scholars sitting on the same form’ (sense 17); but there appears to be no ground for this.

1560.  Daus, trans. Sleidane’s Comm., 160 b. There repared thither not onely from the furthest partes of Germany, but also out of foreine nations, the maner of teaching the youth, and diuiding them into fourmes.

1655.  Heywood, Fort. by Land, III. Wks. 1874, VI. 399.

1740.  J. Clarke, An Essay on the Education of Youth in Grammar-Schools (ed. 3), 110. The Master is obliged to divide his Time amongst Boys of different Forms, and to adapt his Discourses and Instructions to their different Attainments.

1871.  M. Collins, Mrq. & Merch., I. i. 13. He always called his step-mother ‘mamma’; and indeed at the date of his father’s marriage—when she was the undoubted belle of the season, and he was in the fifth form at Eton—there was a marvellous distance between them.

  fig.  1774.  Fletcher, Ess. Truth, Wks. 1795, IV. 124. If there are various forms in the School of Truth.

  † 7.  A model, type, pattern, or example. Obs.

1382.  Wyclif, 1 Thess. i. 7. So that ȝe ben maad fourme, or ensaumple, to alle men bileuynge.

c. 1425.  Wyntoun, Cron., VII. vi. 19.

1690.  Locke, Hum. Und., III. iii. (1695), 230. To make abstract general Ideas, and set them up in the mind, with Names annexed to them, as Patterns, or Forms, (for in that sence the word Form has a very proper signification).

  8.  Due shape, proper figure; orderly arrangement of parts, regularity, good order; also, military formation.

1595.  Shaks., John, III. iv. 101.

1652.  Evelyn, Diary, 22 March. His garden, which he was now desirous to put into some forme.

1681.  Dryden, Abs. & Achit., I. 531.

1719.  De Foe, Crusoe, II. x. They came dropping in some and some, not in two bodies, and in form, as they went out, but all in heaps, straggling here and there in such a manner that a small force of resolute men might have cut them all off.

1775.  R. King, in Life & Corr. (1894), I. 9. They in their advancing stood shoulder to shoulder and as soon as one Man was shot down in the front, another from the Rear immediately filled his place, & by that means in a wonderful manner kept their Body in form, upon which alone their success depends.

  9.  Style of expressing the thoughts and ideas in literary or musical composition, including the arrangement and order of the different parts of the whole. Also, method of arranging the ideas in logical reasoning; good or just order (of ideas, etc.), † logical sequence.

1551.  T. Wilson, Logike (1580), 84 b. The faulte that is in the forme, or maner of makyng [of a syllogism], as we cal it, maie be dissolued, when we shewe that the conclusion, is not well proued, by the former proposicions, and that the argument, is either not well made, in figure or in mode, or in bothe.

1576.  A. Fleming, A Panoplie of Epistles, 81. In what a maze of mistrust is my conscience, when it reasoneth with it selfe in this forme and order?

c. 1600.  Shaks., Sonnet lxxxv. 8.

1667.  Temple, Lett. Gourville, Wks. 1731, II. 32. I am very little satisfied with the Queen of Spain’s Letter…. I think the Form is faulty, as well as the Substance.

1864.  Bowen, Logic, vi. 149. Every correct step of Reasoning, considered simply as such, or in reference to its Form, is as indisputable as one of those Primary Axioms of Pure Thought on which it is based, or of which it is an application.

1871.  Morley, Voltaire (1886), 6. Hardly a page of all these countless leaves is common form.

1876.  Stainer & Barrett, Dict. Mus. Terms, Form. The shape and order in which musical ideas are presented.

1879.  Green, Read. Eng. Hist., xxvii. 139. He [Chaucer] read the Sonnets of Petrarca, and he learnt what is meant by ‘form’ in poetry.

1889.  Lowell, Latest Lit. Ess. (1892) 144. I am not sure that Form, which is the artistic sense of decorum controlling the coördination of parts and ensuring their harmonious subservience to a common end, can be learned at all, whether of the Greeks or elsewhere.

  † 10.  Manner, method, way, fashion (of doing anything). In like form: in like manner. Obs.

1297.  R. Glouc. (1724), 447.

c. 1380.  Wyclif, Serm., Sel. Wks. I. 177. Crist ȝyveþ his prechours foorme how þei shal lyve in þis work.

1475.  The Boke of Noblesse (1860), 24. It is in like fourme knowen of high recorde.

1509.  Barclay, Shyp of Folys (1874), I. 195.

1585.  T. Washington, trans. Nicholay’s Voy. Turkie, IV. viii. 119. The Persians in their habite goe very honourably clothed, and like vntoo the Turkes and Grecians weare long gownes, closed and buttoned before, and attyre their heads with sundry bandes of diuers colours, the endes whereof hang downe verye lowe before and behinde ouer their shoulders, in the fourme and maner as the picture following doth shew.

1641.  J. Jackson, True Evang. T., II. 115. He lastly was crucified under Nero, as his Master was, but after a diverse forme, with his head downward, just like a Sheep upon the Cambrell.

  11.  A set, customary, or prescribed way of doing anything; a set method of procedure according to rule (e.g., at law); formal procedure.

1297.  R. Glouc. (1724), 491.

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 19981 (Cott.).

1596.  Spenser, State Irel. Wks. (Globe), 622/2. There is one or two Statutes which make the wrongfull distrayning of any mans goodes agaynst the forme of the Common Lawe to be felony.

1599.  Shaks., Much Ado, IV. i. 2. Leonato. Come Frier Francis, be briefe, onely to the plains forme of marriage.

1647.  Clarendon, Hist. Reb., VIII. § 284. Their General; who used, in all dispatches made by Himself, to observe all decency in the forms.

1714.  Steele, Englishman, No. 55, 9 Feb., 355. The Lords who favoured the Doctor, and entered Protestations, entered none which supported Passive Obedience, but only laid hold of some Forms of Law to have prevented Judgment.

1727.  Swift, Gulliver, III. iv. 205. Being not of an enterprizing Spirit, he was content to go on in the old Forms, to live in the Houses his Ancestors had built, and act as they did in every part of Life without Innovation.

1787.  T. Jefferson, Writ. (1859), II. 272. I have the honor to inclose you a paper from the Admiralty of Guadeloupe, sent to me as matter of form.

1805.  T. Lindley, Voy. Brasil (1808), 77. To make his report to the fort from whence he came, &c. (a form to which the Portuguese merchantmen are all subject).

1818.  Jas. Mill, Brit. India, II. V. ix. 706. The other commissioners being seldom called to deliberate, or so much as assemble for form sake.

1870.  Lubbock, The Origin of Civilisation, i. (1875), 2. The form of capture in weddings can only be explained by the hypothesis that the capture of wives was once a stern reality.

  b.  In form: according to the rules or prescribed methods (now usually in due or proper form); also, as a matter of merely formal procedure, formally.

[1556.  Aurelio & Isab. (1608), D vj. It sholde be putte in writinge, and reduitede in fourme of lawe.]

1703.  Luttrell, Brief Rel. (1857), V. 350. Count de Frize, governor of Landau, writes, that all the avenues leading to that citty are possest by the French, and [he] expects to be attackt in form.

1711.  Addison, Spect., No. 164, 7 Sept., ¶ 5. He recovered himself enough to give her the Absolution in Form.

1736.  Lediard, Life Marlborough, I. 24. The art, which he afterwards possess’d in the highest perfection, that of besieging a strong town in Form.

1749.  Fielding, Tom Jones, I. xi. The captain made his advances in form, the citadel was defended in form, and at length, in proper form, surrendered at discretion.

1756–82.  J. Warton, Ess. Pope (ed. 4), II. x. 128. The publisher of La Rochfoucault’s maxims makes a grave apology in form, for quoting Seneca in Latin.

1805.  T. Lindley, Voy. Brasil (1808), Introduction, p. xix. The laws, which heretofore existed only in form, have been thoroughly enforced.

  † c.  In University language: The regular course of exercises, attendance on lectures, etc., prescribed for a particular degree. Only in phrase for his form = L. pro forma. Obs.

c. 1470.  Hardyng, Chron., cx., heading. At Oxenford, where the clerkes be sworne [they shall not rede for theyr fourme] at Stamforde.

1523–9.  Act 14–15 Hen. VIII., § 3, in Oxf. & Camb. Enactm., 10. A Graduat of Oxforde or Cantebrygge which hath accomplisshed all thyng for his fourme.

1574.  M. Stokes, in Peacock, Stat. Univ. Camb. (1841), App. A. p. xix. Iff a Bachelar off Dyvynyte preche for hys Frurme.

  12.  A set or fixed order of words (e.g., as used in religious ritual); the customary or legal method of drawing up a writing or document.

1399.  Rolls of Parlt., III. 424/1. Ȝe renounsed and cessed of the State of Kyng … uppe the fourme that is contened in the same Renunciation and Cession.

1526.  Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 9. Our lorde and sauyour Jesu Chryst hath gyuen vs a forme how to praye.

1597.  Hooker, Eccl. Pol., V. xxvi. § 1. From this and from no other forge hath proceeded a strange conceit, that to serve God with any set form of common prayer is superstitious.

1648.  [see FLAT v.² 6 b].

1660.  Pepys, Diary, 17 Nov. I inquired at the Privy Seal Office for a form for a nobleman to make one his Chaplain. But I understanding that there is not any, I did draw up one.

1711.  Addison, Spect., No. 121, 19 July, ¶ 1. A modern Philosopher, quoted by Monsieur Bayle in his Learned Dissertation on the Souls of Brutes, delivers the same Opinion, tho’ in a bolder Form of Words.

1732.  Law, Serious C., xiv. (ed. 2), 241. For tho’ I think a form of prayer very necessary and expedient for publick worship, yet if any one can find a better way of raising his heart unto God in private, than by prepared forms of prayer, I have nothing to object against it.

1818.  Cruise, Digest (ed. 2), V. 106. The form of this fine is—‘And the agreement is such, to wit, that the aforesaid A. hath granted to the aforesaid B. the aforesaid tenements, &c., to hold for 61 years.’

1855.  Dickens, Dorrit, I. x. You’ll memorialise that Department (according to regular forms which you’ll find out) for leave to memorialise this Department.

  b.  A formulary document with blanks for the insertion of particulars.

1855.  Dickens, Dorrit, I. x. I can give you plenty of forms to fill up.

1885.  Act 48 Vict., c. 15, Sched. ii. Forms, II. Form A, You are hereby required to fill up accurately the underwritten form.

1895.  Times, 5 Feb., 12/3. A message written on a telegraph form.

  † c.  A formula, recipe, prescription. Obs.

1484.  Caxton, Fables of Poge (1634), 213. A young man, that made pilles, after a certaine forme that he [a Physition] had shewed vnto him.

1607.  Topsell, Four-f. Beasts (1658), 147. Armetia … prescribeth this form for the cure of this evill: let the Dog be put into the water, so as the hinder-legs do only touch the ground, and his fore-legs be tyed up like hands over his head, and then being taken again out of the water, let his hair be shaved off, that he may be pieled untill he bleed.

1610.  Barrough, Meth. Physick, VII. xxiii. (1639), 410. The form and making wherof [ointments] is to be sought out of the Antidotaries.

  † 13.  A formal agreement, settlement, or arrangement between parties; also, a formal commission or authority. Obs.

1297.  R. Glouc. (Rolls), 8766. An fourme hii made þat eiþer helde · is owe lond in is hond.

c. 1305.  St. Kenelm, 314, in E. E. P. (1862), 56. Hi makede a forme þat [etc.].

1411.  Rolls of Parlt., III. 650/1. Hym to harme and dishonure, agayn the fourme of a Loveday taken bytwen the same parties.

  14.  A set method of outward behavior or procedure in accordance with prescribed usage, etiquette, ritual, etc.; a ceremony or formality. (Often slightingly, as implying the absence of intrinsic meaning or reality.)

1612.  Davies, Discov. Causes why Ireland etc., 234. That the Parliamentes of Ireland, might want no desent or honorable forme that was vsed in England, he caused a particular Act to passe, that the Lords of Ireland should appeare in the like Parliament Robes, as the English Lords are wont to weare in the Parliaments of England.

1643.  Burroughes, Exp. Hosea, iv. (1652), 212. Many who have no Religion but a forme, yet neglect Gods forme. Men love to stand much upon their owne forms, let them know God stands much upon his formes, and it is no hinderance but a furtherance to the power of Religion to keep close to Gods forme.

1676.  Etheredge, Man of Mode, I. i. The Mother’s a great admirer of the Forms and Civilities of the last Age.

1732.  Berkeley, Alciphr., I. § 1. After the usual Forms at first meeting, Euphranor and I sat down by them.

1805.  T. Lindley, Voy. Brasil (1808), 29. He declared the indispensable necessity of the sacrament, which was administered with all its forms.

1818.  Jas. Mill, Brit. India, II. V. vii. 620. They put on the forms of distance; and stood upon elevated terms [with the envoys].

1850.  Tennyson, In Mem., cv.

  † b.  A way of behaving oneself, an instance of behavior of a given kind; in pl. = manners. Obs.

1591.  Shaks., Two Gent., V. iv. 56.

1616.  J. Haig, in J. Russell, Haigs, vi. (1881), 140. My brother gets the letter undeliverit, and, as I think, upon some suspicion, carrying with him ane guilty conscience in respect of the purpose above-written, breaks up the letter, whilk was no gentlemanly form.

1625.  Bacon, Ess., Ceremonies (Arb.), 25. It doth much adde, to a Mans Reputation, and is, (as Queene Isabella said) Like perpetuall Letters Commendatory, to haue good Formes.

a. 1639.  Spottiswood, Hist. Ch. Scot., VI. (1655), 395. When he perceived the Kings countenance not to be towards him as he wished, he changed his forms, and letting some words fall that sounded not well, gave divers to suspect that he should attempt some violence.

  15.  Behavior according to prescribed or customary rules; observance of etiquette, ceremony, or decorum. In (full, great) form: with due ceremony. Often depreciatively: Mere outward ceremony or formality, conventional observance of etiquette, etc.

c. 1386.  Chaucer, Prol., 305.

1602.  Shaks., Ham., III. i. 161. The glass of fashion and the mould of form.

a. 1672.  Wood, Life (1848), 118. They knew him to have been the very lol-poop of the University, the common subject of every lampoon that was made in the said university, and a fellow of little or no religion, only for forme-sake.

1703.  Steele, Tend. Husb., V. i. We’ll eat the Dinner, and have a Dance together, or we shall transgress all Form. Ibid. (1711), Spect., No. 147, 18 Aug., ¶ 2. When I reflected on my former Performances of that Duty, I found I had run it over as a matter of Form, in comparison to the Manner in which I then discharged it.

1722.  De Foe, Plague (1884), 116. There died 550 and upward in a Week, and then they cou’d no more bury in Form, Rich or Poor.

1776.  Foote, Bankrupt, I. Wks. 1759, II. 100. There is so much confinement, and form, even in the most fashionable families, that a single service is best suited to me.

1788.  Ld. Auckland, Diary, Lett. 1861, II. 74–5. We went in the evening in a carriage in full form.

1804.  J. Grahame, The Sabbath, 37.

1805.  T. Lindley, Voy. Brasil (1808), 126. These officers accordingly attended in great form; and reported that the ship had sprung a leak in her bows, in a place so concealed by timbers, that it was impossible to repair it without unloading the vessel.

18[?].  Arnold, in Stanley, Life & Corr. (1844), II. App. A. 293. Thou knowest, O Lord, and our own consciences each know also, whether while we worshipped Thee in form, we worshipped Thee in spirit and in truth.

1871.  Farrar, Witn. Hist., iii. 97. It needed, let us say, the divine vision of a Peter, and the inspired eloquence of a Paul, to burst the intolerable yoke of these long-venerated observances, and to plant the standard of Christian freedom upon the ruins of Levitical form.

  b.  Good (or bad) form: said of behavior, manners, etc., which satisfy (or offend) the current ideals of ‘Society’; (good or bad) manners. colloq.

1868.  Daily News, 24 Dec. Happily it is not good form even to purchase the Bacchanalian handkerchiefs of the Burlington-arcade.

1883.  E. B. England, Notes Eurip., Iphig. in Tauris, 122. This excellent sentiment makes us wonder if οἱ νέοι in Euripides’s day thought energy ‘such awf’ly bad form, you know.’

1890.  Spectator, 7 June, 791. It is not good intellectual form to grow angry in discussion.

  16.  Sporting. Of a horse: Condition in regard to health and training; fitness for running or racing; style and speed in running (as compared with competitors). (See quot. 1861.) In form: fit to run, ‘in condition’; so out of form. Said also of athletes (e.g., oarsmen, cricketers) and players generally.

1760.  R. Heber, Horse Matches, ix. 148. A horse in a very high form.

1787.  ‘G. Gambado,’ Acad. Horsemen (1809), 47. How it would succeed in bringing horses of different forms together over Newmarket, I am not competent to determine.

1834.  Medwin, Angler in Wales, II. 115. To see that he was in proper condition to enable him to run in his best form.

1861.  Walsh & Lupton, Horse, vi. 84. In the language of the turf, when we say that a horse is ‘in form,’ we intend to convey to our hearers that he is in high condition and fit to run.

1869.  Lady Barker, Station Life N. Zealand, xvii. (1874), 126. Two very steady old horses were saddled, one for me and the other for one of the ‘new chums,’ who was not supposed to be in good form for a long walk, owing to a weak knee.

1880.  W. Day, Racehorse in Training, xvi. 157. The mare had simply lost her form—she was not so good as a three- as she was as a two-year-old.

1882.  Standard, 20 Nov., 2/8. Mitchell was in good form, whilst Peall did not play so well as on previous days [at billiards].

1883.  Times, 22 Oct., 10/2. Glocke … has not run in this country, but has shown fair form abroad.

1884.  Camb. Rev., VI. 10 Dec., 131/2. In the winning crew…. Michell kept his form well, but is lacking in leg work.

  b.  transf. Liveliness, high spirits, conversational powers, or the like, colloq.

1877.  F. Marryat, Her Father’s Name (Tauchn.), II. i. 17. The Misses Lillietrip were in great form. They always were on the eve of private theatricals or charades.

1884.  Nonconformist & Indep., 7 Feb., 130/2. The Irish members … did not appear to have recovered their usual form.

1895.  Pall Mall Mag., Sept., 114. Macturk was in great form after his breakfast, apologising to my wife with the grandest air.

  II.  Denoting various material objects.

  17.  A long seat without a back, a bench.

[So OF. forme, med.L. forma, applied also to the stalls in a choir, with back, and book-rest. For the origin of this use of the word, cf. OF. s’asseoir en forme, to sit in a row or in fixed order.]

1387.  Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), IV. 99. Benches, stoles, formes, and all manere stoles were i-do þennes.

c. 1440.  Promp. Parv., 172/1. Foorme, longe stole, sponda.

1494.  Fabyan, Chron. VII. ccxxii. 246. The munkes, with fourmes and candelstyckes, defended theym in suche wyse, that they hurte many of the armed men.

1539.  Act 31 Hen. VIII., c. 10. The same fourme that the archebishop of Canterburie sitteth on.

1607.  Hieron, Wks., I. 282. If then our desire bee to be profitable hearers, let vs labour to bee desirous and humble hearers, such as account it no disparagement to sitte in the Schoole of Christ vpon the learners forme.

1641.  Vestry Bks. (Surtees), 191. Item for 2 short fourmes to sett a coffin uppon in tyme of prayers in the church, 3 s. 8. d.

1694.  Eveyln, Diary, 5 Oct. I went to St. Paul’s to see the choir…. The pulling out the formes, like drawers, from under the stalls is ingenious.

1745.  P. Thomas, Jrnl. Anson’s Voy., 320. They have no Seats, as in our Churches, only Forms; and, when the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper is administer’d, a large Table is placed before the Pulpit, and they sit round it, and, in that Posture receive the Elements.

1833.  L. Ritchie, Wand. by Loire, 33. The said salle, which was a large, cold room, garnished with deal tables and forms.

1875.  A. R. Hope, My Schoolboy Fr., 35. One or two were caught trifling and made to stand up on a form.

1877.  J. D. Chambers, Divine Worship, 139. According to this ancient English practice the First Three Lessons on ordinary Sundays were read by Boys from each side alternately from the first Form, beginning with the side on which the Choir was.

  18.  Mech., etc. A mould or ‘shape’; an implement on which anything is shaped or fashioned.

a. 1653.  Gouge, Comm. Heb. iii. 1. If the form be square or round, so will the metall be.

1669.  Sturmy, Mariner’s Mag., V. 63. To have a form of Wood turned to the height of the Cartredge.

1727–41.  Chambers, Cycl., Form … a kind of mould, whereon a thing is fashioned or wrought. Such are the hatters Form, the papermakers Form, &c.

1858.  in Simmonds, Dict. Trade.

1867.  Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., Forms. The moulds for making wads by.

  † 19.  a. A window-frame. [So F. forme.] Obs.

1463.  Bury Wills (Camden), 39. The glas and the foorme of stoon that longith vnto the same wyndowe.

  † b.  A case or box. Obs.

1594.  Plat, The Jewell House of Art and Nature, III. 1. Cause new fourmes of Lead to be made, either round or square, that may fit the bignes of your flower, or fruit which you meane to keep, in euerie of which fourmes place one flower, Cherrie, Plomme, or Peare, hanging by the stalke in such maner as it grew, let these fourmes be well fitted with their apt couers, and sodered verie close with faste Soder which will runne with a small heate, so as no aire enter, bury them deep in a shady place, where the Sunne may worke no penetration.

  20.  Printing. A body of type, secured in a chase, for printing at one impression. (Often spelt forme.)

1481.  Caxton, Godfrey, ccxii. 312. Whiche book I … sette in forme & enprynted the xx day of nouembre the yere a forsayd in thabbay of westmester by the sayd wylliam Caxton. Ibid. (c. 1483), Bk. for Trav., 24 b. At Westmestre by london In fourmes enprinted [Fr. En formes impressee].

1594.  T. B., La Primaud. Fr. Acad., II. 337. If the compositor faile in setting of his letters, the Printer that putteth ynke vpon the forms, doth not correct the faults of the Compositor.

1691.  Wood, Ath. Oxon., II. 315/1. He [Prynne] flew to the Printing-house and commanded the Compositors to distribute the form, for they would be searched.

1771.  Franklin, Autobiog., Wks. 1887, I. 93. On occasion, I carried up and down stairs a large form of types in each hand, when others carried but one in both hands.

1882.  Pebody, Eng. Journalism, xv. 107. The printers, even with three sets of formes, often found themselves working off papers half through the night and all through the day without being able to overtake the demand.

1888.  J. Southward, in Encycl. Brit. (ed. 9), XXIII. 700/2. The pages of types are arranged in proper order on a flat table, covered with stone or metal, called the imposing stone, and are then ready to be made into a forme, that is, in such a state that they can be securely fastened up and moved about.

  21.  The nest or lair in which a hare crouches. Also rarely, of a deer.

a. 1300.  Fragm. Pop. Sc. (Wright), 318.

c. 1386.  Chaucer, Shipman’s T., 104. As in a fourme sitteth a wery hare.

c. 1440.  Promp. Parv., 172/1. Foorme of an hare, or oþer lyke, lustrum.

1576.  Turberv., Venerie, 161. If when a Hare ryseth out of the forme, she set vp hir eares, and run not verie fast at the firste.

1616.  Surfl. & Markh., Country Farme, 695. The first point making way for the killing of the Hare, consisteth in finding out her forme, which the better to find, you must haue respect vnto the season wherein you go about it.

1735.  Somerville, The Chace, II. 38.

1799.  J. Robertson, Agric. Perth, 329. The sagacity with which the females of both kinds hide their young can only be equalled by that, with which the young [deer] keep close to their form, until the dam return to raise them.

1845.  Darwin, Voy. Nat., iii. (1852), 45–6. In Arctic North America the Indians catch the Varying Hare by walking spirally round and round it, when on its form.

  b.  transf.

1589.  Pappe with an Hatchet (1844), 19, marg. The knaue was started from his Fourme.

1642.  Fuller, Holy & Prof. St., III. xxiii. 215. Some Fames are most difficult to trace home to their form.

1655.  Gurnall, Chr. in Arm., viii. (1669), 53/2. After he had hunted Pharoah out of all his forms and burrows, now he breaks the very brains of all his plots, and serves him up to his people with the garnishment of his wisdom and power about.

  III.  22. Comb., as form-establishing, -shifting adjs.; (sense 6 c) form-fellow, -master; † form-pieces Arch., pl. the pieces of stone which constitute the tracery of a window: cf. FORM sb. 19 a; form-word Gram., a word serving the function of an inflection.

1599.  Daniel, Musophilus, Wks. (1717), 388.

1659.  Fuller, The Appeal of Iniured Innocence, I. 55. The Brittaines, form-fellowes with the Grecians, were wholly given to Idolatry.

1820.  Byron, Lett. to Murray, 6 Oct. I met one evening at the Alfred my old school and form-fellow, (for we were within two of each other, he the higher, though both very near the top of our remove,) Peel, the Irish secretary.

1888.  Daily News, 10 Sept., 5/3. The active rivalry of *form masters.

1360.  Ely Sacrist. Roll (Parker, Gloss. Arch.). In 2 lapidibus vocat *fourme peces empt. 5s.

1450.  in Hist. Dunelm. Script. tres (Surtees), p. cccxxv. Pro factura ij formpeys.

1593.  Nashe, Christ’s Teares, Wks. (Grosart), IV. 225. A *forme-shyfting deuill, disguised in mans lykenesse.

1875.  Whitney, Life Lang., ii. 21. With the auxiliary apparatus of inflections and form-words, wherein various tongues are most of all discordant, each making its own selection of what it will express and what it will leave for the mind to understand without expression.