inform

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   give character or essence to

   The principles that inform modern teaching

2. 2
   verb

   impart knowledge of some fact, state or affairs, or event to

   The detainees were informed of their rights.

3. 3
   verb

   act as an informer

   The citizens informed on each other for years.

4. 4
   verb

   To communicate knowledge to.

   For he would learn their business secretly, / And then inform his master hastily.

5. 5
   verb

   To give form or character to; to inspire (with a given quality); to affect, influence (with a pervading principle, idea etc.).

   His sense of religion informs everything he writes.

6. 6
   verb

   To direct, guide.

   Don’t forget the code of ethics that informs this profession.

7. 7
   verb

   To take form; to become visible or manifest; to appear.

   It is the bloody business which informs / Thus to mine eyes.

8. 8
   adj

   Without regular form; shapeless; ugly; deformed.

   Bleak Crags, and naked Hills, And the whole Prospect so inform and rude

Etymology

From Middle English informen, enformen, borrowed from Old French enformer, informer (“to train, instruct, inform”), from Latin īnfōrmō (“to shape, form, train, instruct, educate”), from in- (“into”) + fōrma (“form, shape”), equivalent to in- + form.