shape
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: enpr: shāp
ipa: /ʃeɪp/
rhymes: -eɪp
Forms: form: shapes
form: shaping
form: shaped
form: shope
form: shaped
form: shope
form: shapen
form: no-table-tags
form: glossary
form: shape
form: shape
form: shaped
form: shope
form: shape
form: shapest
form: shaped
form: shapedst
form: shope
form: shapes
form: shapeth
form: shaped
form: shope
form: shape
form: shaped
form: shope
form: shape
form: shaped
form: shope
form: shape
form: -
form: shaping
form: shaped
form: shapen
Etymology: From Middle English shap, schape, from Old English ġesceap (“shape, form, created being, creature, creation, dispensation, fate, condition, sex, gender, genitalia”), from Proto-West Germanic *ga- + *skap, from Proto-Germanic *ga- + *skapą (“shape, nature, condition”), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kep- (“to split, cut”).
The verb is from Middle English shapen, schapen, from Old English scieppan (“to shape, form, make, create, assign, arrange, destine, order, adjudge”), from Proto-West Germanic *skappjan, from Proto-Germanic *skapjaną (“to create”), from the noun.
The noun is cognate with Middle Dutch schap (“form”), Middle High German geschaf (“creature”), Icelandic skap (“state, condition, temper, mood”). The verb is cognate with Dutch scheppen, German schaffen, Swedish skapa (“create, make”), Norwegian Bokmål skape (“create”). Doublet of -ship.
Senses: examples: text: Earth was shapen by God for God's folk.
text: 1685, Satan's Invisible World Discoveredː
Which the mighty God of heaven shope.
glosses: To create or make.
examples: text: Shape the dough into a pretzel. For my art project, I plan to shape my clay lump into a bowl.
text: The professor never pretended to the academic prerogative of forcing his students into his own channels of reasoning; he entered into and helped shape the discussion but above all he made his men learn to think for themselves and rely upon their own intellectual judgments.
ref: 1932, The American Scholar, United Chapters of Phi Beta Kappa, page 227:
text: Think of banking today and the image is of grey-suited men in towering skyscrapers. Its future, however, is being shaped in converted warehouses and funky offices in San Francisco, New York and London, where bright young things in jeans and T-shirts huddle around laptops, sipping lattes or munching on free food.
ref: 2013 August 3, “Revenge of the nerds”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8847:
glosses: To give something a shape and definition.
examples: text: Mature the Virgin was of Egypt's Race: / Grace ſhap'd her Limbs; and Beauty deck'd her Face: […]
ref: 1718, Mat[thew] Prior, “Solomon on the Vanity of the World. A Poem in Three Books.”, in Poems on Several Occasions, London: […] Jacob Tonson […], and John Barber […], →OCLC, book II (Pleasure), page 437:
text: Bendtner's goal-bound shot was well saved by goalkeeper Ali Al Habsi but fell to Arsahvin on the edge of the area and the Russian swivelled, shaped his body and angled a sumptuous volley into the corner.
ref: 2010 December 29, Mark Vesty, “Wigan 2-2 Arsenal”, in BBC:
glosses: To form or manipulate something into a certain shape.
qualifier: etc
glosses: To give influence to.
raw_tags: of a country
examples: text: The more of you 'twas felt, the more it shap'd / Unto my end of stealing them
ref: 1611 April (first recorded performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Cymbeline”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene v]:
glosses: To suit; to be adjusted or conformable.
examples: text: Oft my jealousy / Shapes faults that are not.
ref: c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene iii]:
glosses: To imagine; to conceive.
Synonyms: sense: give shape
word: form
sense: give shape
word: mold
sense: give shape
word: shapen
Derived terms: beshape
foreshape
forshape
misshape
overshape
shape up