deform
Verb Conjugation Tables & Inflections
Definitions & Usage
(obsolete except poetic) Having an unusual and unattractive shape; deformed, misshapen; hence, hideous, ugly.
To change the form of (something), usually thus making it disordered or irregular; to give (something) an abnormal or unusual shape.
To change the look of (something), usually thus making it imperfect or unattractive; to give (something) an abnormal or unusual appearance.
To mar the character or quality of (something).
(intransitive) To become changed in shape or misshapen.
Notable Literary & Historical Quotes
“[…] 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: […]”
— 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto XII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 20, page 176:
“Sight ſo deform what heart of Rock could long / Drie-ey’d behold?”
— 1667, John Milton, “Book X”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC, lines 491-492:
“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; […]”
— 1785, William Cowper, “Book I. The Sofa.”, in The Task, a Poem, […], London: […] J[oseph] Johnson; […], →OCLC, page 28: