shape

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. The characteristic surface configuration of a thing; an outline or contour. See Synonyms at form.
2. n. Something distinguished from its surroundings by its outline.
3. n. The contour of a person's body; the figure.
4. n. A definite distinctive form: "The bomb gave the shape of life, outer and inner, an irreversible charge; a sense of fatefulness would now lie on all things” ( Alfred Kazin).
5. n. A desirable form: a fabric that holds its shape.
6. n. A form or condition in which something may exist or appear; embodiment: a god in the shape of a swan.
7. n. Assumed or false appearance; guise.
8. n. A ghostly form; a phantom.
9. n. Something, such as a mold or pattern, used to give or determine form.
10. n. The proper condition of something necessary for action, effectiveness, or use: an athlete in excellent shape.
11. v. To give a particular form to; create.
12. v. To cause to conform to a particular form or pattern; adapt to fit.
13. v. To plan to bring about the realization or accomplishment of; devise.
14. v. To embody in a definite form: shaped a folk legend into a full-scale opera.
15. v. To adapt to a particular use or purpose; adjust.
16. v. To direct the course of: "He shaped history as well as being shaped by it” ( Robert J. Samuelson).
17. v. To come to pass; happen.
18. v. To take on a definite shape or form. Often used with up or into.
19. shape up Informal To turn out; develop.
20. shape up To improve so as to meet a standard: Either shape up or ship out.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. To form; make; create; construct.
2. To give shape or form to; cut, mold, or make into a particular form: as, to shape a garment; to shape a vessel on the potters' wheel.
3. To adapt, as to a purpose; cause to conform; adjust; regulate: with to or unto.
4. To form with the mind; plan; contrive; devise; arrange; prepare.
5. To get ready; address (one's self to do something).
6. To direct (one's course); betake (one's self): as, to shape one's course homeward.
7. To image; conceive; call or conjure up.
8. To dress; array.
9. To destine; foreordain; predestine.
10. To take shape or form; be or become adapted, fit, or comformable.
11. To turn out; happen.
12. n. Form; figure; outward contour, aspect, or appearance; hence, guise: as, the two things are dissimilar in shape; the shape of the head; in man's shape.
13. n. That which was form or figure; a mere form, image, or figure; an appearance; a phantasm.
14. n. Concrete embodiment or form, as of a thought, conception, or quality.
15. n. Appearance; guise; dress; disguise; specifically, a theatrical costume (a complete dress).
16. n. Way; manner.
17. n. In industrial art:
18. n. A pattern to be followed by workmen; especially, a flat pattern to guide a cutter.
19. n. Something intended to serve as a framework for a light covering, as a bonnet-frame.
20. n. In cookery, a dessert dish consisting of blanc-mange, rice, corn-starch, jelly, or the like cast in a mold, allowed to stand till it sets or firms, and then turned out for serving.
21. n. The private parts, especially of a female.
22. n. Synonyms Form, Fashion, etc. (see figure), outline, mold, cut, build, cast.
23. n. An obsolete form of past participle of shape.
24. n. In iron ship-building, a general term including all forms of rolled bars, such as angle-bars, T-bars, I-bars, angle-bulb-bars, T-bulb-bars, channel-bars, Z-bars, etc., as distinguished from plates.
25. n. In Tibet, a privy councillor; one of the five who advise the Tibetan regent in state affairs.

Wiktionary

1. n. The status or condition of something
2. n. Condition of personal health, especially muscular health.
3. n. The appearance of something, especially its outline.
4. n. A figure with unspecified appearance; especially a geometric figure.
5. n. Form; formation.
6. v. transitive To give something a shape and definition.
7. v. To manouevre something into a certain shape.
8. v. of a country, etc To give influence to.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. v. To form or create; especially, to mold or make into a particular form; to give proper form or figure to.
2. v. To adapt to a purpose; to regulate; to adjust; to direct.
3. v. archaic To imagine; to conceive; to call forth (ideas).
4. v. To design; to prepare; to plan; to arrange.
5. v. rare To suit; to be adjusted or conformable.
6. n. Character or construction of a thing as determining its external appearance; outward aspect; make; figure; form; guise.
7. n. That which has form or figure; a figure; an appearance; a being.
8. n. A model; a pattern; a mold.
9. n. form of embodiment, as in words; form, as of thought or conception; concrete embodiment or example, as of some quality.
10. n. obsolete Dress for disguise; guise.
11. n. A rolled or hammered piece, as a bar, beam, angle iron, etc., having a cross section different from merchant bar.
12. n. A piece which has been roughly forged nearly to the form it will receive when completely forged or fitted.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. the spatial arrangement of something as distinct from its substance
2. v. shape or influence; give direction to
3. n. any spatial attributes (especially as defined by outline)
4. n. the state of (good) health (especially in the phrases `in condition' or `in shape' or `out of condition' or `out of shape')
5. n. the supreme headquarters that advises NATO on military matters and oversees all aspects of the Allied Command Europe
6. v. give shape or form to
7. n. alternative names for the body of a human being
8. v. make something, usually for a specific function
9. n. a concrete representation of an otherwise nebulous concept
10. n. a perceptual structure
11. n. the visual appearance of something or someone