shape

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   the spatial arrangement of something as distinct from its substance

   geometry is the mathematical science of shape

2. 2
   noun

   any spatial attributes, especially as defined by outline

   We could barely make out their shapes.

3. 3
   verb

   give shape or form to

   shape the dough

4. 4
   noun

   The status or condition of something

   The used bookshop wouldn’t offer much due to the poor shape of the book.

5. 5
   noun

   Condition of personal health, especially muscular health.

   The vet checked to see what kind of shape the animal was in.

6. 6
   noun

   A graphical representation of an object's form or its external boundary, outline, or external surface.

   What shape shall we use for the cookies? Stars, circles, or diamonds?

7. 7
   noun

   Form; formation.

   Your head is a funny shape, rather oblong.

8. 8
   noun

   A mould for making blancmange, jelly, etc., or a piece of such food formed moulded into a particular shape.

   And if I 'm late for supper there 's a dish of macaroni cheese you must put in the oven and a tin of tomatoes to eat with it. And there is a little rhubarb and shape.

Etymology

From Middle English shap, schape, from Old English ġesceap (“shape, form, created being, creature, creation, dispensation, fate, condition, sex, gender, genitalia”), from Proto-West Germanic *ga- + *skap, from Proto-Germanic *ga- + *skapą (“shape, nature, condition”), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kep- (“to split, cut”). The verb is from Middle English shapen, schapen, from Old English scieppan (“to shape, form, make, create, assign, arrange, destine, order, adjudge”), from Proto-West Germanic *skappjan, from Proto-Germanic *skapjaną (“to create”), from the noun. The noun is cognate wi…