Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To alter from proper or natural form; misshape.
  • intransitive verb To spoil the beauty or appearance of; disfigure: synonym: distort.
  • intransitive verb Physics To alter the shape of by pressure or stress.
  • intransitive verb To become deformed.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To change or alter the form of; convert into a new form or shape.
  • Specifically To mar the natural form or shape of; put out of shape; disfigure, as by malformation of a limb or some other part of the body.
  • To render ugly, ungraceful, or displeasing; mar the beauty of; spoil: as, to deform the person by unbecoming dress; to deform the character by vicious conduct.
  • Disfigured; being of an unnatural, distorted, or disproportioned form; displeasing to the eye.
  • To form; fashion; delineate; engrave.
  • In geometry, to bend without stretching or tearing.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective obsolete Deformed; misshapen; shapeless; horrid.
  • transitive verb To spoil the form of; to mar in form; to misshape; to disfigure.
  • transitive verb To render displeasing; to deprive of comeliness, grace, or perfection; to dishonor.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb transitive To remove the form of.
  • verb transitive To remove the looks of; to disfigure; as, a face deformed by bitterness.
  • verb transitive To mar the character of; as, a marriage deformed by jealousy.
  • verb transitive To alter the shape of by stress.
  • verb intransitive To become misshapen or changed in shape.
  • adjective obsolete Deformed, misshapen.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb assume a different shape or form
  • verb alter the shape of (something) by stress
  • verb make formless
  • verb twist and press out of shape
  • verb become misshapen
  • verb cause (a plastic object) to assume a crooked or angular form

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English deformen, from Old French deformer, from Latin dēfōrmāre : dē-, de- + fōrma, form.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Middle English deformen, from Old French deformer, from Latin deformare, infinitive of deformo, from de- + formo ("to form"), from the noun forma ("form").

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