▪ I. unˈformed, ppl. a.1
[un-1 8 and 5 b. Cf. MDu. ongeformet, -vormet (Du. -vormd), MHG. ungeformet (G. -formt), NFris. ünfuaremd.]
1. Not formed or fashioned into a regular shape; not invested with any definite form.
| a 1340 Hampole Psalter xxxii. 9 Þai ere fourmyd of vnfourmyd matere. 1382 Wyclif Deut. xxvii. 6 Thow shalt bild there up an auter..of stonus vnfourmed and vnpolishid. 1599 Daniel Musoph. 951 Who..knows..What words in th' yet unformed Occident, May come refin'd with th' accents that are ours? 1621 G. Sandys Ovid's Met. xv. 406 [He] sees Their bodies limme-lesse: these vnformed things In time put forth their feet, and after, wings. 1651 Hobbes Leviath. i. xii. 55 The unformed matter of the World, was a God, by the name of Chaos. 1712 Addison Spect. No. 309 ¶2 His Passage through the Regions of unformed Matter. 1825 Bull-baiting ii. in Houlston Tr. I. No. 28. 6 His head so torn and mangled, that it appeared nothing but a frightful unformed mass of blood. 1855 Poultry Chron. II. 571/1 Those amateurs who, like myself, prefer..the breast small and unformed. 1877 Caird Philos. Kant ii. i. 203 While matter altogether unformed is a mere abstraction. |
b. transf. Of immaterial things: Not brought to a definite or properly developed state; crude.
| 1689 Andros Tracts II. 195 They would..endeavour to prevent what ill effects an Unform'd Tumult might produce. 1736 Butler Anal. i. v. 86 Mankind is left, by Nature, an unformed, unfinished Creature. 1774 Reid Aristotle's Logic vi. §2 (1788) 144 Every science is in an unformed state until its first principles are ascertained. 1857 Buckle Civiliz. I. xiv. 832 The chemical department of mineralogy is in an unformed and indeed anarchical condition. 1880 Sayce Introd. Sci. Lang. viii. II. 188 The rude and unformed Bushman and the polished Finnic [language]. |
c. fig. Of persons (or the mind): Not developed by education or training; unpolished.
| 1711 Addison Spect. No. 66 ¶2 You can't imagine how unformed a Creature it is. She comes to my Hands just as Nature left her. 1798 S. & Ht. Lee Canterb. T. II. 12 On [him],..in the helplessness of an unformed mind, his sister threw herself. 1856 C. M. Yonge Daisy Chain i. xx, Ethel was very queer and unformed, and could do nothing by herself. 1894 Mrs. H. Ward Marcella I. 104 Very clever in some ways—and very unformed—childish almost—in others. |
2. Not formed or made; uncreated.
| a 1325 Prose Psalter (1891) 194 Vnfourmed is þe fader, vnfourmed is þe sone, vnformed is þe holi gost. c 1400 Pilgr. Sowle (Caxton, 1483) v. xiv. 107 God hymself is nature vnformed and vnwrought that yeueth nature fourmed to euery creature. 1611 Cotgr., Informé,..also, vnformed, vnmade, vnfashioned. 1757 in 10th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm. App. I. 313 If the New Ministry yet unformed, should subsist. 1794 R. J. Sulivan View Nat. IV. 99 Would it not sound strangely to talk of a self-existent house, an uncaused pyramid, an unformed statue? a 1824 Byron Heav. & Earth i. iii, He broke forth Into the dawn, which lighted not the yet Unform'd forefather of mankind. 1855 Poultry Chron. III. 195/2 Lime..is especially necessary for making the as yet unformed bones. |
† 3. unformed stars (or unformed signs): (see quots.). Obs.
| 1590 T. Hood Use Celestial Globe 34 b, The vnformed starres about the Scorpion. 1638 Chilmead tr. Hues' Treat. Globes (1889) 53 This Constellation hath..three unformed..Starres. 1700 Moxon Math. Dict., Unformed Signs, such are those that are called Nebulous or Cloudy, scarce to be seen by the bare Eye or Instrument. 1764 J. Ferguson Lect. 185 Those stars which lie between the figures of those imaginary animals, and could not be brought within the compass of any of them, were called unformed stars. 1810 Vince Elem. Astron. 269. |
▪ II. † unˈformed, ppl. a.2
[un-1 8.]
= uninformed ppl. a.
| c 1400 Destr. Troy 760 Lest þe day vs be-daghe..And I vnformet in faith how I fare shall. |