Pronunciations (3)
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/dɪˈfɔːm/
Pronunciation notes
- Received-Pronunciation
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/dəˈfɔɹm/
Pronunciation notes
- General-American
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dɪˈfɔːm
Pronunciation notes
- GB
Adjective
Having an unusual and unattractive shape; deformed, misshapen; hence, hideous, ugly.
- Synonyms
- Examples
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More examples (1)
[…] 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?
More examples (1)
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; […]
More examples (1)
[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?
Verb
To change the form of (something), usually thus making it disordered or irregular; to give (something) an abnormal or unusual shape.
Usage- Transitive
- Antonyms
- Examples
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More examples (2)
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: […]
They ſay this tovvne is full of coſenage: / As nimble Iuglers that deceiue the eie: / Darke vvorking Sorcerers that change the minde: / Soule-killing VVitches, that deforme the bodie: […]
[Y]ou muſt take care to keep the Bitt ſtraight to the Hole you pierce, leſt you deform the Hole, or break the Bitt.
More examples (1)
Me Pallas gave to lead the martial ſtorm, / And the fair ranks of battle to deform: / Me, Mars inſpir'd to turn the foe to flight, / And tempt the ſecret ambuſh of the night.
The chairs were also damaged, many of them severely; and deep indentations deformed the panels of the walls.
More examples (2)
Your master, Poole, is plainly seized with one of those maladies that both torture and deform the sufferer; hence, for aught I know, the alteration of his voice; hence the mask and his avoidance of his friends; […]
[…] Joe’s thick thatch of curls had been deformed by his headgear into a kind of glossy black hat, […]
To change the form of (something), usually thus making it disordered or irregular; to give (something) an abnormal or unusual shape. To alter the shape of (something) by applying a force or stress.
Usage- Transitive
To change the look of (something), usually thus making it imperfect or unattractive; to give (something) an abnormal or unusual appearance.
Usage- also
- Figurative
- Transitive
- Examples
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a face deformed by bitterness
More examples (3)
Shortly vnto the vvaſtefull vvoods ſhe came, / VVhereas ſhe found the Goddeſſe vvith her crevv, / […] / Some of them vvaſhing vvith the liquid devv / From of their dainty limbs the duſty ſvveat, / And ſoyle vvhich did deforme their liuely hevv, […]
The yeare next enſuing he [Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset] invaded the Scottiſh borders, waſted Tinedale & the marches and deformed the country with ruine and ſpoile.
[E]re Sun-riſe, his [Khusrau Mirza's] afflicted vvife (Cavvn Azems daughter) goes to viſit him; vvhere finding him ſpeechleſſe, and (by his contus'd face) murdered; never did poore vvretch ſhed more teares, or ſhevv more paſſion; by tearing her faire hayre, deforming her ſvveet face ſo fiercely, ſo amazedly, that her Father and all his family heare her, and ſee it to their griefe and admiration.
Still to deform thy gentle Brovv vvith Frovvns! / And ſtill to be perverſe! It is a manner / Abhorrent from the ſoftneſs of thy Sex: […]
More examples (4)
The [Native American] private men fought naked; their faces and bodies being deformed with paint, in order to terrify the enemy.
No storms deform the beaming brow of heaven, / Nor scatter in the freshness of its pride / The foliage of the ever verdant trees; […]
The square was surrounded by stately buildings, but had what seemed to be barracks for soldiers—at any rate—mean little huts, deforming its ample space; and a soldier was on guard before the statue of Louis le Grand.
[Henri] Matisse at that time was at work at his first big decoration, Le Bonheur de Vivre. […] It was in this picture that Matisse first clearly realised his intention of deforming the drawing of the human body in order to harmonise and intensify the colour values of all the simple colours mixed only with white.
To mar the character or quality of (something).
Usage- Transitive
- Examples
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a marriage deformed by jealousy
[Y]our beautie Ladies / Hath much deformed vs, faſhioning our humours / Euen to the oppoſed ende of our ententes.
More examples (5)
But, Sʳ, I will no longer tire your patience wᵗʰ these monsters (the subject of every contemptuous pamphlet) then with the madness of the Anabaptists, Quakers, Fift Monarchy-men, and a cento of unheard of heresies besides, which, at present, deform the once renowned Church of England, and approach so little to the pretended Reformation, which we in France have been made to believe, that there is nothing more heavenly wide.
It made me tremble a little […] to think what a sad thing Passion is, when Way is given to its ungovernable Tumults, and how it deforms and debases the noblest Minds!
VVomen in vain to keep their place have ſtriven; / From ev’ry trade, from each profeſſion driven. / […] / VVhile narrow prejudice deform’d the age, / No actreſs play’d, no female trod the ſtage; / […] / But vvoman once brought forvvard on the ſcene, / By man, like Eve, vvas lik’d as ſoon as ſeen.
Without dragging into the account the thousand and one sins that disgrace and deform society, it will be sufficient to look into the single interest of civilized warfare, in order to make our case.
The earlier part of his discourse was deformed by pedantic divisions and subdivisions: but towards the close he told what he had himself seen and heard with a simplicity and earnestness more affecting than the most skilful rhetoric.
To become changed in shape or misshapen.
Usage- Intransitive
- Examples
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More examples (1)
If I answer that metal’s hard and shiny and cold to the touch and deforms without breaking under blows from a harder material, [David] Hume says those are all sights and sounds and touch. There’s no substance. Tell me what metal is apart from these sensations. Then, of course, I’m stuck.
Verb
make formless
- Examples
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the heat deformed the plastic sculpture
twist and press out of shape
cause (an object) to assume a crooked or angular form
- Broader terms
- Examples
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bend the rod
twist the dough into a braid
More examples (1)
the strong man could turn an iron bar
become misshapen
- Broader terms
- Examples
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The sidewalk deformed during the earthquake
alter the shape of (something) by stress
- Examples
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His body was deformed by leprosy
assume a different shape or form
- Synonyms
- Broader terms