Word: form Part of Speech: verb Etymology: From Middle English forme (“shape, figure, manner, bench, frame, seat, condition, agreement, etc.”), borrowed from Old French forme, from Latin fōrma (“shape, figure, image, outline, plan, mold, frame, case, etc., manner, sort, kind, etc.”). In sense "division grouping school students" (now dated), derived from public school nomenclature later adopted by state schools. It is sometimes said to be from the sense of "bench", where students of certain ages would sit together, though this is disputed, or alternatively from the sense of "established method of expression or practice". Pronunciation: /fɔːm/, /fɔɹm/, [fo̞ɹm], /fo(ː)ɹm/ 1. To assume (a certain shape or visible structure). Labels: transitive Example: When you kids form a straight line I'll hand out the lollies. Example: Earless ghost swift moths become “invisible” to echolocating bats by forming mating clusters close (less than half a meter) above vegetation and effectively blending into the clutter of echoes that the bat receives from the leaves and stems around them. 2. To give (a shape or visible structure) to a thing or person. Labels: transitive Example: Roll out the dough to form a thin sheet. 3. To take shape. Labels: intransitive Example: When icicles start to form on the eaves you know the roads will be icy. Example: As we age, the major arteries of our bodies frequently become thickened with plaque, a fatty material with an oatmeal-like consistency that builds up along the inner lining of blood vessels. The reason plaque forms isn’t entirely known, but it seems to be related to high levels of cholesterol inducing an inflammatory response, which can also attract and trap more cellular debris over time. 4. To put together or bring into being; assemble. Example: The socialists did not have enough MPs to form a government. Example: Paul McCartney and John Lennon formed The Beatles in Liverpool in 1960. 5. To create (a word) by inflection or derivation. Labels: transitive Example: By adding "-ness", you can form a noun from an adjective. 6. To constitute, to compose, to make up. Labels: transitive Example: Teenagers form the bulk of extreme traffic offenders. Example: the diplomatic politicians[…]who formed by far the majority 7. To mould or model by instruction or discipline. Example: Singing in a choir helps to form a child's sociality. Example: 1731–1735, Alexander Pope, Moral Essays 'Tis education forms the common mind. 8. To provide (a hare) with a form. Example: The melancholy hare is formed in brakes and briers. Example: This is the time that the horseman are flung out, not having the cry to lead them to the death. When quadruped animals of the venery or hunting kind are at rest, the stag is said to be harboured, the buck lodged, the fox kennelled, the badger earthed, the otter vented or watched, the hare formed, and the rabbit set. When you find and rouse up the stag and buck, they are said to be imprimed: […] 9. To treat (plates) to prepare them for introduction into a storage battery, causing one plate to be composed more or less of spongy lead, and the other of lead peroxide. This was formerly done by repeated slow alternations of the charging current, but later the plates or grids were coated or filled, one with a paste of red lead and the other with litharge, introduced into the cell, and formed by a direct charging current. Labels: historical, transitive