deform
/dəˈfɔɹm/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: 2.50 in modern English
12
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
2
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
verb
To change the form of (something), usually thus making it disordered or irregular; to give (something) an abnormal or unusual shape.
Transitive verb
verb
To change the form of (something), usually thus making it disordered or irregular; to give (something) an abnormal or unusual shape.
Transitive verb
Example Sentences
- "[…] I did proclame, / That vvho ſo kild that monſter moſt deforme, / And him in hardy battayle ouercame, / Should haue mine onely daughter to his Dame, and of my kingdome heyre apparaunt bee: […]"
- "Sight ſo deform what heart of Rock could long / Drie-ey’d behold?"
- "The common overgrown vvith fern, and rough / VVith prickly goſs, that ſhapeleſs and deform / And dang’rous to the touch, has yet its bloom / And decks itſelf vvith ornaments of gold, / Yields no unpleaſing ramble; […]"
- "Angela the old / Died palsy-twitch’d, with meagre face deform; […]"
- "[W]hat is wanting to success, / If somehow every face, no matter how deform, / Evidence, to some one of hearts on earth, that, warm / Beneath the veriest ash, there hides a spark of soul / Which, quickened by love's breath, may yet pervade the whole / O' the grey, and, free again, be fire?"
- "I that am curtaild of this faire proportion / Cheated of feature by diſſembling nature, / Deformd, vnfinisht, ſent before my time / Into this breathing vvorld ſcarce halfe made vp, / And that ſo lamely and vnfaſhionable, / That dogs barke at me as I halt by them: […]"
Etymology
From Middle English deforme (“out of shape, deformed”) [and other forms], from Middle French deforme (modern French difforme (“misshapen, deformed”)), or directly from its etymon Latin dēfōrmis (“departing physically from the correct shape, deformed, malformed, misshapen, ugly; (figuratively) departing morally from the correct quality, base, disgraceful, shameful, unbecoming”), from dē- (prefix meaning ‘away from; from’) + fōrma (“form, appearance, figure, shape; fine form, beauty; design, outline, plan; model, pattern; mould, stamp; (figuratively) kind, manner, sort”) (further etymology unknown; perhaps related to Ancient Greek μορφή (morphḗ, “form, shape; appearance; outline; kind, type”), probably from Pre-Greek, but there is no consensus) + -is (suffix forming adjectives of the third declension).
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /dəˈfɔɹm/
- British English: /dɪˈfɔːm/
Usage
Inflected Forms
more deform (comparative)
most deform (superlative)
deforms (present, singular)
deforming (participle, present)
deformed (participle, past)
deformed (past)