deformation
(diːfɔːˈmeɪʃən)
Also 5 diff-, 6 dyff-.
[ad. L. dēformātiōn-em (in med.L. also dif-), n. of action from L. dēformāre to deform. Cf. F. déformation (14th c. in Hatzf., and in Cotgr.); admitted into Dict. Acad. 1835.]
1. The action (or result) of deforming or marring the form or beauty of; disfigurement, defacement.
| c 1440 Lydg. Secrees 500 Difformacyons of Circes and meede. 1623 Cockeram, Deformation, a spoiling. 1633 Bp. Hall Hard Texts 86 If by these means of deformation thy heart shall be set off from her. 1650 Bulwer Anthropomet. 96 Which deformation is so pleasing to their Eyes, that men..are commonly seen with their Eares so arrayed. 1734 Watts Relig. Juv. (1789) 85 Could you..recover them from the deformations and disgraces of time. 1877 J. D. Chambers Div. Worship 13 The deformations perpetrated by Wyatt [in a building]. |
2. a. Alteration of form for the worse; esp., in controversial use, the opposite of reformation.
| 1546 Bale Eng. Votaries ii. (1550) 48 b, Johan Capgraue writeth y{supt} a great reformacyon (a dyfformacyon he shulde haue seyd) was than in the Scottish churche. 1581 G. Pettie Guazzo's Civ. Conv. ii. (1586) 81 To seeme young..[they] convert their silver haires into golden ones..this their transformation or rather deformation [etc.]. a 1638 Mede Disc. xlii. Wks. (1677) 236 These are the Serpents first-born.. begotten..by spiritual deformation, as they are Devils. 1651 N. Bacon Disc. Govt. Eng. ii. xxxv. (1739) 159 The great work of Reformation, or rather Deformation in the Worship of God. 1774 A. Gib Present Truth II. 246 The grievous deformation which has been taking place in the Church state. 1832 Whately in Life (1866) I. 153 A most extensive ecclesiastical reformation (or deformation, as it may turn out). 1891 W. Lockhart Chasuble 7 Before the Protestant Deformation of religion in the sixteenth century. |
b. An altered form of a word in which its proper form is for some purpose perverted:
e.g. the various deformations of the word God, as 'od, cod, dod, cot, cock, cop, etc., formerly so common in asseverations, etc., to avoid overt profanity of language, and the breach of the Third Commandment, or of statutes such as that of 3 James I, c. 21 ‘For the preventing and avoiding of the great abuse of the holy name of God in stage-plays, interludes’ [etc.].
3. a. Alteration of form or shape; relative displacement of the parts of a body or surface without breach of continuity; an altered form of.
| 1846 Cayley Wks. I. 234 Two skew surfaces are said to be deformations of each other, when for corresponding generating lines the torsion is always the same. 1857 Whewell Hist. Induct. Sc. III. 54 The isogonal curves may be looked upon as deformations of the curve. 1869 T. L. Phipson tr. Guillemin's The Sun (1870) 81 The deformation of the solar disc by refraction. 1893 Forsyth Functions of a Complex Variable 333 In the continuous Deformation of a surface there may be stretching and there may be bending; but there must be no joining. 1900 Proc. R. Soc. LXV. 90 ‘Flow’ or non-elastic deformation in metals. 1916 C. A. Edwards Physico-Chem. Properties of Steel xi. 125 One of the most useful properties possessed by metals is the facility with which they undergo plastic deformation when pressed, hammered, or rolled. 1953 Aitchison & Pumphrey Engin. Steels ix. 364 The deformation or warping is also partly attributable to the thermal stresses which are set up in the metal. 1967 H. J. Stern Rubber (ed. 2) xi. 490 Rapidly alternating stresses or deformations..give rise to the development of heat in the rubber. 1968 Coulson & Richardson Chem. Engin. (ed. 2) II. iv. 152 Deformation of the drop is opposed by the surface tension forces so that very small drops retain their spherical shape. |
b. Geol. The process by which a stratum, mass of rock, etc., undergoes change of form or structure by being compressed, faulted, folded, etc.; also, the result of this process. Also attrib.
| 1882 A. Geikie Text-bk. Geol. 312 Evidences of actual deformation within the mass of rock. 1904 Chamberlin & Salisbury Geol. (1905) I. 547 It is theoretically possible that deformation of the sub-crust may result from the internal transfer of heat without regard to external loss. 1937 Q. Jrnl. Geol. Soc. XCIII. 602 Such [sedimentation] fabrics in rocks of this type are never so well marked as deformation fabrics. 1955 Sci. Amer. July 40/1 There is little doubt that these four huge fracture zones resulted from some massive deformation of the earth's crust. 1963 E. S. Hills Elem. Struct. Geol. iv. 77 It is therefore admissible to draw analogies between the mechanics of deformation of such rocks with the deformation of metals, both as to the effects in individual crystals and for the crystal aggregate as a whole. |