Adjacent Words

Deform definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

DEFORM, v.t. [L. Form.]
1. To mar or injure the form; to alter that form or disposition of parts which is natural and esteemed beautiful, and thus to render it displeasing to the eye; to disfigure; as, a hump on the back deforms the body.
2. To render ugly or displeasing, by exterior applications or appendages; as, to deform the face by paint, or the person by unbecoming dress.
3. To render displeasing.
Wintry blasts deform the year.
4. To injure and render displeasing or disgusting; to disgrace; to disfigure moral beauty; as, all vices deform the character of rational beings.
5. To dishonor; to make ungraceful.
DEFORM, a. Disfigured; being of an unnatural, distorted, or disproportioned form; displeasing to the eye.
Sight so deform what heart of rock could long
Dry-eyed behold?

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

v
1: make formless; "the heat deformed the plastic sculpture"
2: twist and press out of shape [syn: contort, deform, distort, wring]
3: cause (a plastic object) to assume a crooked or angular form; "bend the rod"; "twist the dough into a braid"; "the strong man could turn an iron bar" [syn: flex, bend, deform, twist, turn] [ant: unbend]
4: become misshapen; "The sidewalk deformed during the earthquake"
5: alter the shape of (something) by stress; "His body was deformed by leprosy" [syn: deform, distort, strain]
6: assume a different shape or form [syn: change shape, change form, deform]

Merriam Webster's

verb Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French or Latin; Anglo-French desfurmer, from Latin deformare, from de- + formare to form, from forma form Date: 15th century transitive verb 1. to spoil the form of 2. a. to spoil the looks of ; disfigure <a face deformed by bitterness> b. to mar the character of <a marriage deformed by jealousy> 3. to alter the shape of by stress intransitive verb to become misshapen or changed in shape • deformable adjective Synonyms: deform, distort, contort, warp means to mar or spoil by or as if by twisting. deform may imply a change of shape through stress, injury, or some accident of growth <his face was deformed by hatred>. distort and contort both imply a wrenching from the natural, normal, or justly proportioned, but contort suggests a more involved twisting and a more grotesque and painful result <the odd camera angle distorts the figure in the photograph> <disease had painfully contorted her body>. warp indicates physically an uneven shrinking that bends or twists out of a flat plane <warped floorboards>.

Oxford Reference Dictionary

v. 1 tr. make ugly, deface. 2 tr. put out of shape, misshape. 3 intr. undergo deformation; be deformed. Derivatives: deformable adj. Etymology: ME f. OF deformer etc. f. med.L difformare ult. f. L deformare (as DE-, formare f. forma shape)

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Deform De*form", a. [L. deformis; de- + forma form: cf. OF. deforme, F. difforme. Cf. Difform.] Deformed; misshapen; shapeless; horrid. [Obs.] Sight so deform what heart of rock could long Dry-eyed behold? --Milton.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Deform De*form", v. t. [imp. & p. p. Deformed; p. pr. & vb. n. Deforming.] [L. deformare; de- + formare to form, shape, fr. forma: cf. F. d['e]former. See Form.] 1. To spoil the form of; to mar in form; to misshape; to disfigure. Deformed, unfinished, sent before my time Into this breathing world. --Shak. 2. To render displeasing; to deprive of comeliness, grace, or perfection; to dishonor. Above those passions that this world deform. --Thomson.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(deforms, deforming, deformed) If something deforms a person's body or something else, it causes it to have an unnatural shape. In technical English, you can also say that the second thing deforms. Bad rheumatoid arthritis deforms limbs... ...the ability of a metal to deform to a new shape without cracking. VERB: V n, V • deformed He was born with a deformed right leg. ADJ • deformation (deformations) Changing stresses bring about more cracking and rock deformation. N-VAR

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

v. a. Disfigure, distort, deface, mar, injure, spoil, make unsightly, make ugly.

Moby Thesaurus

accommodate, adapt, adjust, alter, ameliorate, batter, better, blemish, blur, break up, change, check, cicatrize, confuse, contort, convert, crack, craze, cripple, damage, deface, denature, disfigure, disorder, disproportion, distort, diversify, fit, flaw, fog up, impair, improve, injure, jumble, kink, maim, mangle, mar, meliorate, mess up, misshape, mitigate, modify, modulate, muddle, mutate, mutilate, obfuscate, obscure, overthrow, qualify, re-create, realign, rebuild, reconstruct, redesign, refit, reform, remake, renew, reshape, restructure, revamp, revive, ring the changes, scab, scar, scarify, screw up, shift the scene, shuffle the cards, split, spoil, squinch, subvert, torture, truncate, turn the scale, turn the tables, turn the tide, turn upside down, twist, unform, unshape, vary, warp, wind, work a change, worsen