form 
volatiou of parts may be secured: one of the 
most important branches of the art of compo- 
sition. (6) The particular rhythmical, melod- 
ic, or harmonic disposition or arrangement of 
tones in a phrase, section, or movement, espe- 
cially when distinct and regular enough to be 
known by a special name, as the sonata-/i/n, 
the rondo-form, etc. 20. A blank or schedule 
to be filled out by the insertion of details; a 
sample or specimen document calculated to 
serve as a guide in framing others in like cases : 
as, a form for a deed, lease, or contract. 
You'll memorialise that Department (according to regu- 
lar forms that you'll find out) for leave to memorialise thin 
Department. . . . You had better take a lot of fonni away 
nlthyou. Give him a lot of form* ! 
Dickens, Little Dorrit, x. 
21. A long seat; a bench. 
The Duke, upon hearing it, leaps from the Table so has- 
tily that he hurt both his Shins on the Form. 
Baker, Chronicles, p. 130. 
I was seen . . . sitting with her upon the/onn. 
SAa*.,L. L. L.,i. 1. 
22. (a) A number of pupils sitting together 
on a bench at school. (6) A class or rank of 
students in a school (especially in England). 
Preaching the same Sermon to all sorts of People is as 
if a School-Master should read the same Lesson to his sev- 
eral Formeg. Selden, Table-Talk, p. 93. 
The lower- fourth form in which Tom found himself at 
the beginning of the next half-year was the largest form 
in the lower school, and numbered upwards of forty boys. 
T. Hughes, Tom Brown at Rugby, i. 8. 
Hence () A class or rank in society. 23. 
The seat or bed of a hare. 
Now for a clod-like hare inform they peer. 
Sir P. Sidney, Arcadia, i. 
The hares (Lepus Americanus) were very familiar. One 
had her/ori under my house all winter, separated from 
me only by the flooring. Thoreau, Walden, p. 301. 
24. A particular species or kind ; a species of 
a genus, etc. ; any assemblage of similar things 
constituting a component of a group, especially 
of a zoological group. 
Practically, when a naturalist can unite two forms to- 
gether by others having intermediate characters, he treat* 
the one as a variety of the other, ranking the most com- 
mon, but sometimes the one first described, as the species, 
and the other as the variety. 
Darwin, Origin of Species, p. 56. 
We must also remember that many slight characters 
may be the atrophied or rudimentary remains of more 
important characters which were useful in some ancestral 
form. A. R. Wallace, in Fortnightly Rev., N. S., XL. 306. 
Absolute form, in metaph., form considered, or being, 
without matter. Accidental form, in motopA., * form 
which constitutes not the substance of a thing, but a mere 
accident of it. Adjoint linear form, in math., a linear 
function having the same facients as the quantic to which 
it belongs, and its coefficients indeterminate. Cayley, 
1854. Algebraic form. See def. 17. Assistant form, 
in inetaph., a form which makes no part of the subject, 
but serves only to impart motion to it. Bad, binary, 
canonical, conditional, etc., form. See the adjectives. 
Blank form. (a) A printed paper in which spaces are 
left blank to be filled up according to particular require- 
ment. Such forms are very extensively used in legal and 
business transactions. (6) In printing, a form of types in 
which a page or several pages have been left blank. Cal- 
culus of forms. See calculus. Continuity of forms. 
See continuit y. Contract forms. See contract, a. 
Corporeal form, a form which not only inheres in bodies, 
but has in itself a bodily character. Degenerate form. 
See degenerate. Disponent or disposing form. See 
principal form. Dmsorof a form. See diritor. Ex- 
ternal form of reasoning. See external. Form of 
action, in law, the distinguishing method of procedure, 
and hence the class to which an action belongs, considered 
with reference to the mode of procedure or the kind of 
relief sought. Form Of a proposition, the mode of re- 
lationship which it asserts between its terms ; also, the 
logical type or class to which the proposition belongs; 
also, with older writers, the copula as contradistinguished 
from the subject and the predicate. Form of cognition, 
the mode in which anything is cognized ; especially, in 
the Kantian philos., that by which any kind of synthesis 
of representations is effected, being either a form of in- 
tuition (space and time), of the understanding (a Kantian 
category), or of the reason (a Kantian idea). Form of 
Concord. See concord. Form of corporeity, in met- 
aph., that in which the bodily character of a thing is de- 
termined. Form of forms, iii inetaph., the idea which 
determines the ideas themselves ; the one, also the nous 
of Plotinus. 
Arise, climb, ascend, and mount up (with speculative 
wings) in spirit, to behold in the glasse of creation the 
form offonns, the exemplar number of all things numer- 
able, both visible and invisible, mortal and immortal, cor- 
poral and spiritual. Dee, Pref. to Euclid (1570). 
The soul may be called the form of forms. 
Bacon, Physical Fables, ii., Expl. 
Form value. See value. Good form. See def. 14. 
Ground form. See ground^. Immaterial form, in 
inetaph., a form the efficient cause of which does not lie 
in matter: opposed to material form. Informing form, 
in inetaph., a form which is a part of its subject. In- 
herent form, in inetaph., a form which can exist only in 
matter. Inner form, in printing, when two forms are 
used for one sheet, the form which contains the pages that 
are hidden or concealed by the folds or bolts in an uncut 
2336 
sheet. This form is usually printed first. Intelligible 
form, in nu'taph., a form which can be perceived only 
by the intellect. Outer form, in in-intiuy, when two 
forms are required, the form which contains the first and 
last pages of a signature, as 1 and 8 in a sheet of octavo, 
or 1 and 16 in a sheet of llimo, and tile pa^es which tilt-re- 
tort- appear on the outside of the folded sheet. I'snally 
this side of tile sheet is printed last. - Principal form, 
in mftnph., a form which itself constitutes a species: 
opposed to a dixponent or disposing farm, which merely 
in-i-pares the matter for the reception of the principal 
form. Ribbed form, in '"'"'' MBWHMHM, a square or 
oblong wooden frame with parallel brass wires steadied 
by cross-wires, used for making lined paper. Sensible 
form, in inetaph., a form which can be perceived by the 
senses. Separate form, in metaph., a form which, while 
it may be capable of existing only in matter, yet has a being 
apart from the matter. Simple form, in inetaph., mere 
form, without matter: thus, God is held to be simple 
form. Substantial or essential form, in metaph., 
that in which the essence of a thing consists. The sub* 
stantial form has four marks : it does not directly affect 
the senses ; it has no variations of degree (though this 
was disputed) ; it is good and perfect ; it is the princi- 
ple or origin of the properties and operations of that to 
which it pertains. Much use was made by the medieval 
logicians of the doctrine of substantial forms, and thus 
the absurdity of trying to explain the properties and 
operations of things by means of mere abstract state- 
ments was put in a strong light, which the conflict with 
the real explanations of science soon heightened. Thus, 
if the Newtonian law of gravitation were merely a trans- 
formation of Kepler's laws, and implied nothing further, 
it would lie of the nature of a substantial form ; but in 
point of fact it predicts the various lunar equations, 
the planetary perturbations, the precession of the equi- 
noxes, the tides, and the figure of the earth. Theory 
Of forms, the theory of the changes of algebraic forms 
due to linear transformations of their variables; espe- 
cially, the theory of invariants, reciprocants, etc. To 
take form, to assume a definite shape, appearance, or or- 
der ; become definite and clear: as, the conception gradu- 
ally took form in his mind. = Syn. 1. Shape. Fashion, etc. 
See figure, . 13. Rite, Observance, etc. See ceremony. 
form (fdrm), v. [Early mod. E. also fourm, 
fourme; < ME. formen, fourmen, < OF. former, 
fourmer, F. former = Pr. Sp. Pg.formar = It. 
formare = D. vormen = MHG. G. formen = Icel. 
Sw. forma = Dan. forme, < L. formare, shape, 
fashion, form, etc., < forma, a shape, form: 
see form, .] I. trans. 1. To give form to; 
shape ; mold, (o) To give a figure to ; make a figure 
of ; constitute as a figure : as, to form a statue ; to form a 
triangle. 
That glorious picture of the air 
Which summer's light-robed angel forms 
On the dark ground of fading storms. 
Whittier, Mogg Megone, ii. 
(b) In general, to model, make, or produce by any combi- 
nation of parts or materials. 
And the Lord Godformed man of the dust of the ground. 
Gen. ii. 7. 
I'll trust you with the stuff you have to work on, 
You'll form it! B. Jorum, Catiline, iii. 3. 
Prometheus, forming Mr. Day, 
Carv'd something like a Man in Clay. 
Prior, The Parallel. 
We can put together sentence after sentence of clear 
and strong English without a single Romance word ; we 
cannot form the shortest really complete grammatical 
sentence without Teutonic words. 
E. A. Freeman, Amer. Lects., p. 165. 
Specifically (c) To arrange ; combine in any particular 
manner: as, Reformed his troops into a hollow square. 
(a) To model by instruction and discipline ; mold ; train. 
Eminent men, living and dead, whom we will not stop 
to enumerate, carried to the Upper House an eloquence 
formed and matured in the Lower. 
Macaulay, Lord Holland. 
I resolved to form Dora's mind. ... I talked to her on 
the subjects which occupied my thoughts. 
Dickens, David Copperfleld, xlviii. 
(e) To devise ; conceive ; frame ; invent ; create : as, to 
form opinions from sound premises ; to form an image in 
the mind. 
He said that he was unable to form an idea of what 
would be international bimetallism. 
Contemporary Rev., L. 287. 
We have now no means of forming an opinion of the 
great national temple of the Capitoline Jove, no trace of 
it, nor any intelligible description, having been preserved 
to the present time. J. Fergmson, Hist. Arch., I. 305. 
(/) In gram., to make, as a word, by derivation or by af- 
fixes. 
The one class or conjugation regularly forms its preterit 
and participle ... by the addition of " ed " or "d " to the 
root of the verb. 
Whitney, Essentials of Eng. Grammar, p. 107. 
2. To go to make up ; be an element or con- 
stituent of ; constitute ; take the shape of : as, 
duplicity forms no part of his character; these 
facts form a safe foundation for our conclu- 
sions. 
The diplomatic politicians, . . . who formed by far the 
majority. Burke, A Regicide Peace, ii. 
He took his measures with that combination of dexter- 
ity and daring which formed his character. 
Irving, Granada, p. 61. 
3f. To display so as to communicate the real 
meaning. 
No violent heat whatsoever can form anew language to 
a man which he never knt-w Ijefore. 
Stillingfleet, Sermons, I. ix. 
formal 
4f. To persuade ; bring to ilo. 
The tfrist that 3011 furnifil to that ffals dede, 
He shulde have hadde hongynjjt- on hie on the tforckis. 
l;i./,iinl the Redelets. i. 107. 
5. To provide with a form, as a hare. [Rare.] 
The melancholy hare is/orwW in brakes ami briers. 
Drayton, Polyolbion, ii. 204. 
= Syn. 1. To fashion, carve, produce, dispose. 2. To con- 
stitute, compose, make up. 
II. intrans. 1. To take or come into form; 
assume the characteristic or implied figure, 
appearance, or arrangement: as, the troops 
formed in columns; ice forms at a tempera- 
ture of 32 F. 
Form .' Form I Riflemen, form ! 
Ready, be ready to meet the storm ! 
Tennyson, The War. 
At the time of the English settlement in Britain, the 
consciousness of distinct national life could hardly have 
begun among the Nether-Dutch people ; their language, 
their institutions, were still only forming, not yet formed. 
E. A. Freeman, Amer. Lects., p. 77. 
2. To run for a form, as a hare ; squat in a form. 
Scath. First, think which way she fourmeth, on what 
wind ; 
Or north, or south. 
George. For, as the shepherd said, 
A witch is a kind of hare. B. Jonson, Sad Shepherd, ii. 2. 
-form. [= F. -forme = Sp. Pg. It. -forme, < L. 
-formis, -like, -shaped, the form, with adj. ter- 
mination, in compound adjectives, of forma, 
shape, form: see form, m. The vowel preced- 
ing this termination (representing in Latin 
the stem-vowel of the preceding element) is 
properly i; but in some scientific words re- 
cently formed the vowel is erroneously made 
p, as if the ending of the Latin feminine geni- 
tive.] A termination in words of Latin origin, 
or in words formed like them, meaning ' -like, 
-shaped, in the form of: as, ensiform, sword- 
like, sword-shaped; falciform, sickle-shaped; 
vermiform, worm-like ; oviform, in the form of 
an egg. 
formable (for'ma-bl), a. [= F. formalle = Sp. 
formable = It. formabile, capable of being 
formed, < LL. formabilis, that may be formed, 
< formare, f orm : see form, .] 1. Capable of 
being formed. 
A good many of his nervous connections are not yet 
formed, they are only/orwiaWe. 
J. Fiske, Evolutionist, p. 312. 
2f. Shapely ; well formed. Davies. 
Thys profit is gott by trauelling, that whatsoeuer he 
wryteth he may so expresse and order it, that hys narra- 
tive may be formable. W. Webbe, Eng. Poetry, p. 90. 
3f. Formal. Vekker. 
formal (fdr'mal), a. [< ME. formel, fourmel, G. 
formeH = Dan. Sw. formel, < OF. formel, F. 
formel = Pr. Sp. Pg. formal = It. formale, < L. 
formalis, < forma, form: see form, w.] 1. Ac- 
cording to form, rule, or established order; 
according to the rules of law or custom ; sys- 
tematic; regular; legal. 
The tide of blood in me 
Hath proudly flow'd in vanity, till now : 
Now doth it turn, and ebb back to the sea ; 
Where it shall mingle with the state of floods, 
And flow henceforth in formal majesty. 
Shak., 2 Hen. IV., v. 2. 
It was agreed that there should be a formal disputation 
between these doctors and some Protestant clergymen. 
Macaulay, Hist. Eng., vi. 
Clive . . . applied to the Court of Delhi for a formal 
grant of the powers of which he already possessed the re- 
ality. Macaulay, Lord Clive. 
In northern Gaul, above all, where the Franks accepted, 
not only Christianity but Catholic Christianity, in the very 
act of their coming, the Teutonic conquest can hardly be 
said to have made any change at all in the formal position 
of the Christian Church. 
E. A. Freeman, Amer. Lects., p. 111. 
2. Characterized by or made or done in strict 
or undue conformity to legal or conventional 
rules ; notably conventional. 
And then, the justice ; 
In fair round belly, with good capon lin'd, 
With eyes severe, and beard of formal cut, 
Full of wise saws and modern instances. 
Shall., As you Like it, ii. 7. 
Still in constraint your suff ring sex remains, 
Or bound in formal or in real chains. 
Pope, Epistle to Miss Blount, 1. 42. 
A cold-looking,/0roiZ garden, cut into angles and rhom- 
boids. Irving. 
Formal habits long since out of date. 
Browning, Ring and Book, I. 66. 
3. Observing or requiring strict observance of 
the rules of law, custom, or etiquette; strict- 
ly ceremonious ; precise ; exact to affectation ; 
punctilious. 
Especially [ceremonies] be not to be omitted to stran- 
gers and formal natures. Bacon, Essays, liii. 
