[UN-1 8 and 5 b. Cf. MDu. ongeformet, -vormet (Du. -vormd), MHG. ungeformet (G. -formt), NFris. ünfuaremd.]
1. Not formed or fashioned into a regular shape; not invested with any definite form.
a. 1340. Hampole, Psalter, xxxii. 9. Þai ere fourmyd of vnfourmyd matere.
1382. Wyclif, Deut. xxvii. 6. Thow shalt bild there up an auter … of stonus vnfourmed and vnpolishid.
1599. Daniel, Musoph., 951. Who … knows … What words in th’ yet unformed Occident, May come refin’d with th’ accents that are ours?
1621. G. Sandys, Ovid’s Met., XV. 406. [He] sees Their bodies limme-lesse: these vnformed things In time put forth their feet, and after, wings.
1651. Hobbes, Leviath., I. xii. 55. The unformed matter of the World, was a God, by the name of Chaos.
1712. Addison, Spect., No. 309, ¶ 2. His Passage through the Regions of unformed Matter.
1825. Bull-baiting, II. in Houlston Tr., I. No. 28. 6. His head so torn and mangled, that it appeared nothing but a frightful unformed mass of blood.
1855. Poultry Chron., II. 571/1. Those amateurs who, like myself, prefer … the breast small and unformed.
1877. Caird, Philos. Kant, II. i. 203. While matter altogether unformed is a mere abstraction.
b. transf. Of immaterial things: Not brought to a definite or properly developed state; crude.
1689. Andros Tracts, II. 195 They would … endeavour to prevent what ill effects an Unform’d Tumult might produce.
1736. Butler, Anal., I. v. 86. Mankind is left, by Nature, an unformed, unfinished Creature.
1774. Reid, Aristotle’s Logic, vi. § 2 (1788), 144. Every science is in an unformed state until its first principles are ascertained.
1857. Buckle, Civiliz., I. xiv. 832. The chemical department of mineralogy is in an unformed and indeed anarchical condition.
1880. Sayce, Introd. Sci. Lang., viii. II. 188. The rude and unformed Bushman and the polished Finnic [language].
c. fig. Of persons (or the mind): Not developed by education or training; unpolished.
1711. Addison, Spect., No. 66, ¶ 2. You can’t imagine how unformed a Creature it is. She comes to my Hands just as Nature left her.
1798. S. & Ht. Lee, Canterb. T., II. 12. On [him],… in the helplessness of an unformed mind, his sister threw herself.
1818. Mrs. Shelley, Frankenstein, II. 101. I sympathized with, and partly understood them, but I was unformed in mind; I was dependent on none, and related to none.
1856. Miss Yonge, Daisy Chain, I. xx. Ethel was very queer and unformed, and could do nothing by herself.
1894. Mrs. H. Ward, Marcella, I. 104. Very clever in some ways—and very unformed—childish almost—in others.
2. Not formed or made; uncreated.
a. 1325. Prose Psalter (1891), 194. Vnfourmed is þe fader, vnfourmed is þe sone, vnformed is þe holi gost.
c. 1400. Pilgr. Sowle (Caxton, 1483), V. xiv. 107. God hymself is nature vnformed and vnwrought that yeueth nature fourmed to euery creature.
1611. Cotgr., Informé,… also, vnformed, vnmade, vnfashioned.
1757. in 10th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm., App. I. 313. If the New Ministry yet unformed, should subsist.
1794. R. J. Sulivan, View Nat., IV. 99. Would it not sound strangely to talk of a self-existent house, an uncaused pyramid, an unformed statue?
a. 1824. Byron, Heav. & Earth, I. iii. He broke forth Into the dawn, which lighted not the yet Unform’d forefather of mankind.
1855. Poultry Chron., III. 195/2. Lime … is especially necessary for making the as yet unformed bones.
† 3. Unformed stars (or signs): (see quots.). Obs.
1590. T. Hood, Use Celestial Globe, 34 b. The vnformed starres about the Scorpion.
1638. Chilmead, trans. Hues’ Treat. Globes (1889), 53. This Constellation hath … three unformed … Starres.
1700. Moxon, Math. Dict., Unformed Signs, such are those that are called Nebulous or Cloudy, scarce to be seen by the bare Eye or Instrument.
1764. J. Ferguson, Lect., 185. Those stars which lie between the figures of those imaginary animals, and could not be brought within the compass of any of them, were called unformed stars.
1810. Vince, Elem. Astron., 207. Antinous was made out of the unformed stars near Aquila; and Coma Berenices out of the unformed stars near the Lion’s Tail. They are both mentioned by Ptolemy, but as unformed stars.
