Search the Dictionary

The shape and size of a book; hence, its external form.

A salt of formic acid. [Written also formiate.]

The manner in which a thing is formed; structure; construction; conformation; form; as, the peculiar formation of the heart.

Giving form; having the power of giving form; plastic; as, the formative arts. The meanest plant can not be raised without seed, by any formative residing in the soil. Bentley.

An affix.

Having the same form. [R.]

The act of conforming; the act of producing conformity.

An apparatus for taking the conformation of anything, as of the head for fitting a hat, or, in craniometry, finding the largest horizontal area of the head.

Transformation; change of shape.

The act of giving shape or form. [Obs.] Ray.

The act of informing, or communicating knowledge or intelligence. The active informations of the intellect. South.

Having power to inform, animate, or vivify. Dr. H. More.

Full of, or conveying, information; instructive. [R.] London Spectator.

Imperfect, disproportionate, or abnormal formation; ill form; disproportion of parts.

Malconformation.

See Malformation.

Ill formation; irregular or anomalous formation; abnormal or wrong conformation or structure.

Malformation.

Untrue or incorrect information. Bacon.

An old theory of the preëxistence of germs. Cf. Emboîtement.