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Shape   /ʃeɪp/   Listen
noun
Shape  n.  
1.
Character or construction of a thing as determining its external appearance; outward aspect; make; figure; form; guise; as, the shape of a tree; the shape of the head; an elegant shape. "He beat me grievously, in the shape of a woman."
2.
That which has form or figure; a figure; an appearance; a being. "Before the gates three sat, On either side, a formidable shape."
3.
A model; a pattern; a mold.
4.
Form of embodiment, as in words; form, as of thought or conception; concrete embodiment or example, as of some quality.
5.
Dress for disguise; guise. (Obs.) "Look better on this virgin, and consider This Persian shape laid by, and she appearing In a Greekish dress."
6.
(Iron Manuf.)
(a)
A rolled or hammered piece, as a bar, beam, angle iron, etc., having a cross section different from merchant bar.
(b)
A piece which has been roughly forged nearly to the form it will receive when completely forged or fitted.
To take shape, to assume a definite form.


verb
Shape  v. t.  (past shaped; past part. shaped or shapen; pres. part. shaping)  
1.
To form or create; especially, to mold or make into a particular form; to give proper form or figure to. "I was shapen in iniquity." "Grace shaped her limbs, and beauty decked her face."
2.
To adapt to a purpose; to regulate; to adjust; to direct; as, to shape the course of a vessel. "To the stream, when neither friends, nor force, Nor speed nor art avail, he shapes his course." "Charmed by their eyes, their manners I acquire, And shape my foolishness to their desire."
3.
To imagine; to conceive; to call forth (ideas). (archaic) "Oft my jealousy Shapes faults that are not."
4.
To design; to prepare; to plan; to arrange. "When shapen was all this conspiracy, From point to point."
Shaping machine. (Mach.) Same as Shaper.
To shape one's self, to prepare; to make ready. (Obs.) "I will early shape me therefor."


Shape  v. i.  To suit; to be adjusted or conformable. (R.)





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Shape" Quotes from Famous Books



... equally tormented, though the phenomena took rather a different form. Alone in his bedroom at night, the shape of the room would frequently change; either the walls and ceiling would recede, and recede, until they assumed the proportions of some vast chamber, full of gloom and strange shadows; or they would slowly, very slowly, close in upon him, as if it were their intention to crush him to death. A feeling ...
— The Sorcery Club • Elliott O'Donnell
... dead masses of matter, awaiting another impulse which starts again their inner energies into activity and a new solar life cycle is begun. And thus it is with all the worlds; they are born, grow and die; only to be reborn. And thus it is with all the things of shape and form; they swing from action to reaction; from birth to death; from activity to inactivity—and then back again. Thus it is with all living things; they are born, grow, and die—and then are reborn. ...
— The Kybalion - A Study of The Hermetic Philosophy of Ancient Egypt and Greece • Three Initiates
... individual, in those days, just as patches did in my grandmother's time; and Virginie's hair was not to my taste, or according to my principles: it was too classical. Her large, black eyes looked out at you steadily. One cannot judge of the shape of a nose from a full- face miniature, but the nostrils were clearly cut and largely opened. I do not fancy her nose could have been pretty; but her mouth had a character all its own, and which would, I think, have redeemed a plainer face. ...
— My Lady Ludlow • Elizabeth Gaskell
... stitched together make the sails. This boat thus equipped may be furnished with all necessaries from the same tree. There is not a month in which the cocoa does not produce a bunch of nuts, from twenty to fifty. At first sprouts out a kind of seed or capsula, of a shape not unlike the scabbard of a scimitar, which they cut, and place a vessel under, to receive the liquor that drops from it; this drink is called soro, and is clear, pleasant, and nourishing. If it be boiled, it grows hard, and makes a kind of sugar much valued in the Indies: distil this liquor ...
— A Voyage to Abyssinia • Jerome Lobo
... with that nameless fear to which she could give neither shape nor direction, and after a moment's hesitation ...
— Queechy, Volume II • Elizabeth Wetherell


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