DICT.TW Dictionary Taiwan

 Form n.
 1. The shape and structure of anything, as distinguished from the material of which it is composed; particular disposition or arrangement of matter, giving it individuality or distinctive character; configuration; figure; external appearance.
    The form of his visage was changed.   --Dan. iii. 19.
    And woven close close, both matter, form, and style.   --Milton.
 2. Constitution; mode of construction, organization, etc.; system; as, a republican form of government.
 3. Established method of expression or practice; fixed way of proceeding; conventional or stated scheme; formula; as, a form of prayer.
 Those whom form of laws
 Condemned to die.   --Dryden.
 4. Show without substance; empty, outside appearance; vain, trivial, or conventional ceremony; conventionality; formality; as, a matter of mere form.
 Though well we may not pass upon his life
 Without the form of justice.   --Shak.
 5. Orderly arrangement; shapeliness; also, comeliness; elegance; beauty.
    The earth was without form and void.   --Gen. i. 2.
    He hath no form nor comeliness.   --Is. liii. 2.
 6. A shape; an image; a phantom.
 7. That by which shape is given or determined; mold; pattern; model.
 8. A long seat; a bench; hence, a rank of students in a school; a class; also, a class or rank in society. “Ladies of a high form.”
 9. The seat or bed of a hare.
    As in a form sitteth a weary hare.   --Chaucer.
 10. Print. The type or other matter from which an impression is to be taken, arranged and secured in a chase.
 11. Fine Arts The boundary line of a material object. In painting, more generally, the human body.
 12. Gram. The particular shape or structure of a word or part of speech; as, participial forms; verbal forms.
 13. Crystallog. The combination of planes included under a general crystallographic symbol. It is not necessarily a closed solid.
 14. Metaph. That assemblage or disposition of qualities which makes a conception, or that internal constitution which makes an existing thing to be what it is; -- called essential or substantial form, and contradistinguished from matter; hence, active or formative nature; law of being or activity; subjectively viewed, an idea; objectively, a law.
 15. Mode of acting or manifestation to the senses, or the intellect; as, water assumes the form of ice or snow. In modern usage, the elements of a conception furnished by the mind's own activity, as contrasted with its object or condition, which is called the matter; subjectively, a mode of apprehension or belief conceived as dependent on the constitution of the mind; objectively, universal and necessary accompaniments or elements of every object known or thought of.
 16. Biol. The peculiar characteristics of an organism as a type of others; also, the structure of the parts of an animal or plant.
 Good form or Bad form, the general appearance, condition or action, originally of horses, afterwards of persons; as, the members of a boat crew are said to be in good form when they pull together uniformly.  The phrases are further used colloquially in description of conduct or manners in society; as, it is not good form to smoke in the presence of a lady.