Form v.¹

Also 4–6 fourme(n, 4–5 foorme, fowrme, fowrym). [a. OF. fourme-r (Fr. former) = Pr. and Sp. formar, ad. L. formāre, f. forma FORM sb.]

  1.  trans. To give form or shape to; to put into or reduce to shape; to fashion, mould.

1340–70.  Alex. & Dind., 600. We … No figure of fin gold · fourme þer-inne.

1667.  Milton, P. L., VIII. 469. The Rib he formd and fashond with his hands.

a. 1748.  Watts, Hymn, ‘All Glory to the dying Lamb,’ v.

1809.  Roland, Fencing, iii. 64. Return to nearly the same position with your arm that you were in when at first engaged, but forming the parade with a firm, supple, and precise motion.

  absol.  1869.  Ward, trans. Curtius’ Hist. Greece, II. II. iv. 74. Here artists had formed in clay from a very early date.

  † b.  To express in formal shape; to formulate; to state formally. Also with up. Obs.

c. 1330.  R. Brunne, Chron. (1810), 99. Þe bisshop of Parys þe pes þan formed he.

1614.  B. Jonson, Barth. Fair, IV. vi. Hee’ll go neare to forme to her what a debauch’d Rascall I am, and fright her out of all good conceipt of me.

1675.  Brooks, Gold. Key, Wks. 1867, V. 286. Seven several pleas, that all sincere Christians may form up.

  c.  To give a specified form to; to mould or fashion into a certain shape, or after, by, from, upon a certain pattern or model; to conform to.

1297.  R. Glouc. (Rolls), 3179. Yfourmed as a dragon · ase red ase fur.

1303.  R. Brunne, Handl. Synne, 3780.

c. 1330.  King of Tars, 577.

c. 1400.  Maundev. (Roxb.), vii. 25. Þat worme es turned till a fewle perfitely fourmed.

c. 1440.  Gesta Rom., xviii. 332 (Add. MS.). The soule, sette aboute with vertues, whan god fourmed it to his liknesse.

a. 1533.  Ld. Berners, Huon, lxxxiii. 263. By y^e lorde that fourmyd me to his semblaunce.

1674.  trans. Scheffer’s Lapland, 64. Charles the ninth divided the Countrey into several parts, and formed it into better order.

1683.  Salmon, Doron Med., I. 107. Forme it into Lozenges, of what Fashion you please.

1875.  Jowett, Plato (ed. 2), V. 172, Laws, Introduction. A state formed after the model of Crete should, and probably will, have a character for virtue, such as few cities have under the sun.

  d.  intr. To shape itself into. Also, † to agree in form, fit with.

1703.  Moxon, Mech. Exerc., 183. The hollow edge is ground upon the Corner of a Grind-stone, which in short time wears the outside of that Corner to comply and form with the hollow of the Gouge.

  † e.  trans. To express by form, to ‘body forth.’

1590.  Spenser, F. Q., III. i. 1.

  † f.  To agree formally to do something. Obs.

c. 1400.  Destr. Troy, 10946.

  2.  To mould by discipline or education; to train, instruct. Now rare, exc. with the mind, a faculty, etc., as object. Also refl. to shape one’s conduct, style, etc., on or upon (a model).

a. 1340.  Hampole, Psalter, xvii. 29. Þaire maners ere fourmed of samen lifynge.

1697.  Dryden, Virg. Georg., III. 305.

1724.  A. Collins, Gr. Chr. Relig., 140. It seems more natural for a body of slaves and captives to be form’d by their masters and conquerors, than that the conquerors should be form’d by them.

1746.  Col. Records Pennsylv., V. 51. May ther never be wanting One of Your Royal Blood, form’d upon Your Majestie’s Example, to Sway the British Scepter.

1749.  Smollett, Gil Blas, V. i. On this hint I formed myself.

1770.  Langhorne, Plutarch (1879), II. 715/2. He [Philip] therefore sent for Aristotle, the most celebrated and learned of all the philosophers; and the reward he gave him for forming his son [Alexander] was not only honourable, but remarkable for its propriety.

1761.  Earl Pembroke, Milit. Equit. (1778), 87. There is a great deal of good sense in Xenophon’s method of forming horses for war; after him, horsemanship was buried for ages, or rather brutalised, which is still too much the case.

1781.  Gibbon, Decl. & F., III. 2. The most skilful masters of every science, and of every art, had laboured to form the mind and body of the young prince.

1812.  Sir H. Davy, Chem. Philos., 18. Van Helmont, of Brussels, born in 1588, was formed in the school of alchemy, and his mind was tinctured with its prejudices.

1847.  L. Hunt, Men, Women & B., II. vii. 82. Formed under their auspices, our parrot soon equalled his instructors.

1889.  Jessopp, Coming of Friars, iv. 197. The rest is rudely scrawled by some one whose hand is not yet formed.

  absol.  1377.  Langl., P. Pl., B. XV. 370.

  b.  To inform of; also, to instruct. Obs.

1399.  Langl., R. Redeles, IV. 58.

c. 1400.  An Apology for Lollard Doctrines, 71. What may þey do, but … abid til þei be formid wiþ holy writ, how hem is best to do?

  † c.  To instigate, persuade. Obs.

1399.  Langl., R. Redeles, I. 107.

c. 1400.  Destr. Troy, 8027.

  3.  To place in order, arrange. Also, to embody, organize (persons or things) into (a society, system, etc.). Cf. 8 a.

1362.  Langl., P. Pl., A. VIII. 38.

c. 1420.  Pallad. on Husb., I. 1101. But setis make yfourmed as thee list.

1667.  Decay Chr. Piety, xv. 360. Our divisions with the Romanists … are thus form’d into an interest.

1700.  S. L., trans. C. Fryke’s Voy. E. Ind., 309. We were commanded to inclose our Leaders; that is, to form our selves into a Ring, where we heard the Articles of War read to us.

1772.  Simes, Mil. Guide (1781), 12. The routes must be so formed, that no column cross another on the march.

1874.  Green, Short Hist., ii. § 6. 93. The Clerks of the Royal Chapel were formed into a body of secretaries or royal ministers, whose head bore the title of Chancellor.

  b.  intr. for refl. (Cf. 8 b.)

1821.  Clare, The Village Minstrel, I. 44. lxxxiii.

  4.  To construct, frame; to make, bring into existence, produce. Const. from, of, out of (the material or elements). Also, to articulate, pronounce (a word, etc.).

c. 1300.  Havelok, 36.

1381.  Wyclif, Gen. ii. 7. The Lord God thanne fourmede man of the slyme of the erthe, and spiride in to the face of hym an entre of breth of lijf.

c. 1400.  Lanfranc’s Cirurg., 139. He answerde me bablynge as a childe þat begynneþ to speke, but he myȝte formen non worde.

c. 1440.  Gesta Rom., xlvii. 204 (Harl. MS.). Adam, the whiche was shapin and formide in the felde of Damaske.

1514.  Barclay, Cyt. & Uplondyshm. (Percy Soc.), 10.

1551.  Bp. Gardiner, Explic. Transubst., 107. Whenne God formed Adam of claye, the matter of the clay remayned in Adam and yet the materiall clay remayned not.

1577.  Hellowes, trans. Gueuara’s Chron., 75. He made the Goddesse Venus in Alabaster, and with a pencill did paint the wars of Carthage: and of waxe did fourme the whole Island Creta.

1611.  Bible, 2 Esdras vi. 39. And then was the spirit, and darkenesse, and silence were on euery side; the sound of mans voice was not yet formed.

1667.  Milton, P. L., XI. 566.

1800.  trans. Lagrange’s Chem., II. 151. The oxygen of the oxide of the gold seizes on the hydrogen and forms water.

1849.  Macaulay, Hist. Eng., I. 294. It had recently been formed out of the cavalry who had returned from Tangier.

1860.  Tyndall, Glac., I. xxvii. 202. The snow had given way, forming a zigzag fissure across the slope.

1885.  Antiquary, XII. Sept., 89/1. He [Henry VIII.] was the first English king to form a gallery of pictures, and it included a number of notable pictures.

  b.  To frame in the mind, conceive (an idea, judgment, opinion, etc.). † Formerly also, to imagine; occas. to form to oneself (= Fr. se figurer), and with complement.

1595.  Shaks., John, IV. iii. 45.

1667.  Decay Chr. Piety, xv. 357. The defeat of the secular design, is commonly the routing those Opinions, which were formed for the promoting it.

1678.  Dryden, All for Love, II. Wks. 1883, V. 369.

1703.  Rowe, Fair Penit., II. i. 423.

1712.  Steele, Spect., No. 533, 11 Nov., ¶ 2. Form to your self what a Persecution this must needs be to a virtuous and chaste Mind.

1779.  Burke, Corr. (1844), II. 270. I do not form an estimate of the ideas of the churches of Italy and France from the pulpits of Edinburgh.

1861.  M. Pattison, Ess. (1889), I. 44. Has the reader seen the Arthushof at Dantzic? If he has, he may form to himself some notion of what the principal building of the Steelyard must have been before 1666.

1866.  J. Martineau, Ess., I. 277. There can be no first truths; for we form no judgments till we have got language, and must have the parts of speech before we can predicate any thing; and then any stiff association of ideas, however arbitrary, is ready to set up for self-evidence.

  c.  Parliamentary. = CONSTITUTE 6 b.

1825.  T. Jefferson, Autobiog., Wks. 1859, I. 11. The next morning, walking in the hall of Congress, many members being assembled, but the House not yet formed, I observed Mr. Jay, speaking to R. H. Lee, and leading him by the button of his coat to me.

  d.  refl. and intr. for refl.

1801.  Southey, Thalaba, I. xxiv.

1830.  Tennyson, Sea-Fairies, 25. The rainbow forms and flies on the land Over the islands free.

1864.  Bryce, Holy Rom. Emp. vii. (1875), 113. Very early in Christian history had the belief formed itself that the Roman Empire—as the fourth beast of Daniel’s vision, as the iron legs and feet of Nebuchadnezzar’s image—was to be the world’s last and universal kingdom.

1880.  T. A. Spalding, Elizabethan Demonology, 128. Stop the butter from forming in the churn.

1893.  Law Times, XCV. 40/1. A sheet of ice had formed in front of Proctor’s house, upon which Mrs. Vickers slipped and broke her wrist.

  5.  To develop in oneself, acquire (habits); to enter into (a junction); to contract (an alliance, friendship, etc.).

1736.  Butler, Anal., I. v. Wks. 1874, I. 90. Active habits are to be formed by exercise.

1781.  Hist. Eur., in Ann. Reg., 2/1. The French fleet from Brest had, according to a custom now becoming annual, formed a junction with the Spaniards at Cadiz.

1784.  Cowper, Task, II. 634.

1828.  D’Israeli, Chas. I., II. xii. 309. With the Flemings, indeed, our country had from the earliest times formed an uninterrupted intercourse.

1842.  Lytton, Zanoni, 33. He formed no friends, flattered no patrons, resorted to none of the merry-makings so dear to the children of music and the South.

1891.  Speaker, 2 May, 531/1. Acute remarks on human nature and life, not a few of which those methodical readers, who have formed the useful habit of keeping commonplace books, will find it worth while to record for future use.

  6.  a. To be the components or material of; to go to make up, to compose. b. To serve for, constitute; to make one or part of.

1377.  Langl., P. Pl., B. XVII. 169. The fyngres fourmen a ful hande · to purtreye or peynten.

1717.  trans. Frezier’s Voy. S. Sea, 48. The Island is somewhat lower than the Continent, with which it forms two Passages.

1781.  Cowper, Friendship, 13.

1817.  Coleridge, Sibyll. Leaves, Fire, Famine & Slaughter. Letters four do form his name.

1849.  Macaulay, Hist. Eng., I. 294. The Life Guards, who now form two regiments, were then distributed into three troops, each of which consisted of two hundred carabineers, exclusive of officers.

1873.  Act 36 & 37 Vict., c. 77 § 39. The soil forming such butt or target.

1874.  Green, Short Hist., vi. § 2. 275. Yeomen and tradesmen formed the bulk of the insurgents, but they were joined by more than a hundred esquires and gentlemen, and two great landowners of Sussex, the Abbot of Battle and the Prior of Lewes, openly favoured their cause.

1885.  Manch. Exam., 15 July, 5/2. A common mould fungus … forming a kind of black velvety mass.

1821.  Clare, The Village Minstrel, and Other Poems, II. 35, A Sigh.

1841.  Brewster, Mart. Sc., vi. (1856), 91. During the last three years of his [Galileo’s] life, his eminent pupil Viviani formed one of his family; and in October, 1641, the celebrated Torricelli, another of his pupils, was admitted to the same distinction.

1845.  M. Pattison, Ess. (1889), I. 27. The king despatched to the synod the volume of the canons which had formed the object of his study the preceding night.

1869.  Freeman, Norm. Conq. (1876), III. xi. 59. Harold then found himself in January, as William found himself in December, King of a realm of which Northumberland constitutionally formed a part, but a King to whom Northumberland presented a front of at least passive resistance.

  c.  With mixture of sense 2: To render fit for.

1711.  Steele, Spect., No. 49, 26 April, ¶ 3. These are the Men formed for Society, and those little Communities which we express by the Word Neighbourhoods.

1777.  Robertson, Hist. Amer. (1778), I. II. 84. All these qualities, which formed him [Columbus] for command, were accompanied with that superior knowledge of his profession, which begets confidence in times of difficulty and danger.

  7.  Gram. a. To construct (a new word) by derivation, composition, etc. b. Of a word or word-stem: To have (a case, tense, etc.) expressed by a specified inflection.

1824.  L. Murray, Gram., I. 348. Dissyllables formed by prefixing a syllable to the radical word, have commonly the accent on the latter.

1872.  Morris, Eng. Accid., xiii. 168. The verbs of the strong conjugation we have seen form the past tense by a change of the root-vowel; weak verbs by means of a suffix -d or -t.

  8.  Milit. and Naval. a. To draw up (troops, etc.) in order. Also with up.

[c. 1330.  R. Brunne, Chron. (1725), 115.

c. 1400.  Destr. Troy, 6334.

1816.  Keatinge, Trav. (1817), II. 5. As soon as the last of the baggage is off the ground, the standard is raised; whereupon the troops mount, and, the whole being formed, move off the ground in a body.

1833.  Regul. Instr. Cavalry, I. 56. The left files to be formed up, and sit at ease, while the right files canter.

1838–42.  Arnold, Hist. Rome, III. xliii. 78. Hannibal himself, who was with the party crossing the river, leaped on shore amongst the first, and forming his men as fast as they landed, led them instantly to the charge.

1870.  Bryant, Iliad, I. II. 69.

1893.  Forbes-Mitchell, Remin. Gt. Mutiny, 41. We were then formed up and served with some rations.

  b.  refl. and intr. Of troops, ships, etc.: To arrange themselves in or assume some particular disposition or formation, according to prescribed rules. Also with up. To form on (some other body): see quot. 1802.

1722.  De Foe, Col. Jack (1840), 236. Our army formed immediately.

1736.  Lediard, Life Marlborough, II. 494. The first Squadrons, led by the Prince of Hesse, had much ado to form themselves.

1795.  Nelson, 10 March, in Nicolas, Disp., II. 11. The Admiral made the signal to form in the Order of Battle.

1796.  Instr. & Reg. Cavalry (1813), 77. They will at once form up.

1799.  Harris, in Owen, Wellesley’s Desp., 119. The right wing of the army under my command formed on the picquets of the right.

1802.  C. James, Milit. Dict., To Form on, is to advance forward, so as to connect yourself with any given object of formation, and to lengthen the line.

1803.  Lake, in Owen, Wellesley’s Desp., 405. The infantry formed in two columns upon the left.

1832.  Ht. Martineau, Hill & Valley, viii. 126. At length, the last prisoner was brought out; the soldiers formed themselves round the waggon, and it drove off, amidst a chorus of lamentation from the crowd.

1859.  Tennyson, Riflemen Form! ii.

1883.  Army Corps Orders, in Standard, 22 March, 3/3. When the ‘assemble’ sounds both Forces will form up by Brigades.

  c.  trans. To arrange themselves in the form of (battalions, a line, etc.).

1772.  Simes, Mil. Guide (1781), 12. The companies will march out from their several streets, form battalions as they advance to the head of the line, and then halt.

1796.  Instr. & Reg. Cavalry (1813), 152. The whole are ordered to halt, with an intention of forming line in the new direction. Ibid., 225. Form open column of divisions behind the right.

  d.  To form the siege (of a place) [Fr. former un siège]: to commence active siege-operations (against it).

1766.  Gibbon, Decl. & F., I. xi. 218. The siege of that great city [Milan] was immediately formed, and Aureolus, as a last resource, attempted to seduce the loyalty of the besiegers.

1802.  C. James, Milit. Dict., s.v. Siege.… To form the Siege, or lay Siege to a place … there must be an army sufficient to furnish five or six reliefs for the trenches, pioneers, guards, convoys, escorts, &c. and artillery, with all the apparatus thereto belonging; magazines [etc.].

1871.  Freeman, Norm. Conq. (1876), IV. xviii. 155. The whole army now drew near; the siege was formed, and William began by striving to strike awe alike into his followers and into his enemies by an act in which the laws of war were strained to the uttermost.