deform

Syllables: de·form/dɪˈfɔːm/US/dəˈfɔɹm/

deform adjective: having an unusual and unattractive shape; deformed, misshapen; hence, hideous, ugly.

Adjective

deform (comparative more deform, superlative most deform)

(obsolete except poetic) Having an unusual and unattractive shape; deformed, misshapen; hence, hideous, ugly.
- […] 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...
Synonyms:

disfigured, distorted, shapeless, deformed, malformed, misproportioned, misshapen, unfashionable, bad, beat

Antonyms:

attractive, beauteous, beautifool, beautiful, beautimous, bona vardering, bonnie, breathtaking, captivating, comely

Verb

deform (third-person singular simple present deforms, present participle deforming, simple past and past participle deformed)

(transitive) To change the form of (something), usually thus making it disordered or irregular; to give (something) an abnormal or unusual shape.
- I that am curtaild of this faire proportion / Cheated of feature by diſſembling nature, / Deformd, vnfinisht, ſent before my time / Into this breathing vvorld ſcarce halfe made vp, / And that ſo lamely and vnfaſhionable, / That dogs barke at me as I halt by them: […]c. 1593 (date written), [William Shakespeare], The Tragedy of King Richard the Third. […] (First Quarto), London: […] Valentine Sims [and Peter Short] for Andrew Wise, […], published 1597, →OCLC...
- They ſay this tovvne is full of coſenage: / As nimble Iuglers that deceiue the eie: / Darke vvorking Sorcerers that change the minde: / Soule-killing VVitches, that deforme the bodie: […]c. 1594 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Comedie of Errors”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount...
Synonyms:

contort, distort

Antonyms:

undeform
1. (transitive) To alter the shape of (something) by applying a force or stress.
(also, figuratively, transitive) To change the look of (something), usually thus making it imperfect or unattractive; to give (something) an abnormal or unusual appearance.
- a face deformed by bitterness
- Shortly vnto the vvaſtefull vvoods ſhe came, / VVhereas ſhe found the Goddeſſe vvith her crevv, / […] / Some of them vvaſhing vvith the liquid devv / From of their dainty limbs the duſty ſvveat, / And ſoyle vvhich did deforme their liuely hevv, […]1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto VI”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 17, pages 482–483
Synonyms:

deface, disfigure, distort, mar
(transitive) To mar the character or quality of (something).
- a marriage deformed by jealousy
- [Y]our beautie Ladies / Hath much deformed vs, faſhioning our humours / Euen to the oppoſed ende of our ententes.c. 1595–1596 (date written), W. Shakespere [i.e., William Shakespeare], A Pleasant Conceited Comedie Called, Loues Labors Lost. […] (First Quarto), London: […] W[illiam] W[hite] for Cut[h]bert Burby...
(intransitive) To become changed in shape or misshapen.
- If I answer that metal’s hard and shiny and cold to the touch and deforms without breaking under blows from a harder material, [David] Hume says those are all sights and sounds and touch. There’s no substance. Tell me what metal is apart from these sensations. Then, of course, I’m stuck.1974, Robert M[aynard] Pirsig, chapter 11, in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values, New York, N.Y.: William Morrow & Company, →ISBN, part II, page 133

deform meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Malayalam and Kannada

deform in Malayalam

കോലംകെടുത്തുക, അവമാനം വരുത്തുക, രൂപാന്തരപ്പെടുത്തുക, വിരൂപമാക്കുക

deform in Kannada

ಕೊಂಕು, ಅಂದಗೆಡು, ಹುಟ್ಟುಗೆಡು, ಚೆಲ್ವೋಡು, ಚೆಲುವಳಿ, ಚಲುವಳಿ

Examples of deform in a sentence

Angela the old / Died palsy-twitch’d, with meagre face deform; […]1819, John Keats, “The Eve of St. Agnes”, in Lamia, Isabella, the Eve of St. Agnes, and Other Poems, London: […] [Thomas Davison] for...
[Y]ou muſt take care to keep the Bitt ſtraight to the Hole you pierce, leſt you deform the Hole, or break the Bitt.1678, Joseph Moxon, “Continued in the Art of Joynery”, in Mechanick Exercises: Or, The Doctrine of Handy-works. […], 2nd edition, number...
Me Pallas gave to lead the martial ſtorm, / And the fair ranks of battle to deform: / Me, Mars inſpir'd to turn the foe to flight, / And tempt the ſecret ambuſh of the night.1725, Homer, “Book XIV”, in [Alexander Pope], transl., The Odyssey of Homer. […], volume III, London: […] Bernard Lintot, →OCLC, page 249...
The chairs were also damaged, many of them severely; and deep indentations deformed the panels of the walls.1847 December, Ellis Bell [pseudonym; Emily Brontë], chapter XIII, in Wuthering Heights: […], volume I, London: Thomas Cautley Newby, […]...

All 11 example sentences with deform

Synonyms of deform

22 more synonymsFewer synonyms

Antonyms

10 more antonymsFewer antonyms

All synonyms and antonyms of deform

Forms of deform

Adjective
comparative	more deform
superlative	most deform
Verb
third-person singular present	deforms
present participle	deforming
past participle	deformed
past	deformed

Past tense of deform: deformed

Origin of deform

From Middle English deforme (“out of shape, deformed”) [and other forms], from Middle French deforme (modern French difforme (“misshapen, deformed”)), or directly from its etymon Latin dēfōrmis (“departing physically from the correct shape, deformed, malformed, misshapen, ugly; (figuratively) departing morally from the correct quality, base, disgraceful, shameful, unbecoming”), from dē- (prefix meaning ‘away from; from’) + fōrma (“form, appearance, figure, shape; fine form, beauty; design, outline, plan; model, pattern; mould, stamp; (figuratively) kind, manner, sort”) (further etymology unknown; perhaps related to Ancient Greek μορφή (morphḗ, “form, shape; appearance; outline; kind, type”), probably from Pre-Greek, but there is no consensus) + -is (suffix forming adjectives of the third declension).

From Middle English deformen (“to disfigure, distort, or mar; (figuratively) to disfigure morally; to defame; to dishonour”) [and other forms], equivalent to de- + form, from Old French deformer [and other forms] (modern French déformer (“to contort, distort, twist out of shape; (figuratively) to pervert”)), or directly from its etymon Latin dēfōrmāre (whence Medieval Latin difformāre), the present active infinitive of dēfōrmō (“to fashion, form; to delineate, describe; to design; to deform, disfigure; to mar, spoil”), from dē- (prefix meaning ‘away from; from’) + fōrmō (“to fashion, form, shape; to format”) (from fōrma (noun); see further at etymology 1). Cognates * Catalan deformar (“to deform”) * Italian deformare (“to deform; to distort, warp”) * Occitan deformar * Portuguese deformar (“to deform”) * Spanish deformar, desformar (“to deform, disfigure”)

Words formed from deform

Words that rhyme with deform

9 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about deform

What does deform mean?: Deform means having an unusual and unattractive shape; deformed, misshapen; hence, hideous, ugly.
What is deform in Tamil?: Deform in Tamil is உருச்சிதை, உருக்குலை. See Deform meaning in Tamil.
How do you use deform in a sentence?: Angela the old / Died palsy-twitch’d, with meagre face deform; […]
What part of speech is deform?: Deform can be an adjective or a verb.
How do you pronounce deform?: Deform is pronounced /dɪˈfɔːm/ (UK).

Words near deform in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: deform (page history and authors); deform (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); deform (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); deform (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); deform (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-deform.wav.

Cite this entry: “deform.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/deform. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.