2 definitions found
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]:
Form \Form\ (f[^o]rm), v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Formed} (f[^o]rmd);
p. pr. & vb. n. {Forming}.] [F. former, L. formare, fr.
forma. See {Form}, n.]
1. To give form or shape to; to frame; to construct; to make;
to fashion.
God formed man of the dust of the ground. --Gen. ii.
7.
The thought that labors in my forming brain. --Rowe.
2. To give a particular shape to; to shape, mold, or fashion
into a certain state or condition; to arrange; to adjust;
also, to model by instruction and discipline; to mold by
influence, etc.; to train.
'T is education forms the common mind. --Pope.
Thus formed for speed, he challenges the wind.
--Dryden.
3. To go to make up; to act as constituent of; to be the
essential or constitutive elements of; to answer for; to
make the shape of; -- said of that out of which anything
is formed or constituted, in whole or in part.
The diplomatic politicians . . . who formed by far
the majority. --Burke.
4. To provide with a form, as a hare. See {Form}, n., 9.
The melancholy hare is formed in brakes and briers.
--Drayton.
5. (Gram.) To derive by grammatical rules, as by adding the
proper suffixes and affixes.
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]:
Forming \Form"ing\, n.
The act or process of giving form or shape to anything; as,
in shipbuilding, the exact shaping of partially shaped
timbers.