semiform

Noun

semiform (plural semiforms)

1. A partial or imperfect form.
   • For seventeen years he had kept death at bay, and, at the time I speak of, medical diagnosis revealed that but one lung supported his remnant of life; thet that semiform of life seemed equal to the prime of many a hale man .1880, Horace Bushnell, Mary A. Bushnell Cheney, Life and Letters of Horace Bushnell, page 531
   • Prior to that it was in a semiform state for 2 years, semiform state being that various groups have gotten together to say there should be a committee, so that would be approximately 5 years' life to the committee.1969, United States. Congress. House, Hearings - Volume 7, page 649
2. A crystal structure that is more elaborate than the simplest (primitive) form but which does not include all the faces and symmetry elements characteristic of the full crystal system.
   • This semiform π (312) is again to be observed on crystal No. 13, though it is there represented by only a single face.1882, L. Fletcher, “Crystallographic Notes”, in London, Edinburgh and Dublin Philosophical Magazine and Journal of Science (Supplement), volume 13, page 479
   • As crystals of tourmaline do not rotate the plane of polarisation, it is probable that in the case of the present crystal the hemimorphic development is of a semiform, similar to those which have been observed on dioptase and apatite, and that the form should be designated crystallographically as...1886, R. H. Solly, “On the Tetartohedral Development of a Crystal of Tourmaline”, in The Mineralogical Magazine and Journal of the Mineralogical Society, volume 6, page 81