FORMLESS

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does formless mean? 

• FORMLESS (adjective)
  The adjective FORMLESS has 2 senses:

1. having no definite form or distinct shape

2. having no physical form

  Familiarity information: FORMLESS used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• FORMLESS (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Having no definite form or distinct shape

Synonyms:

amorphous; formless; shapeless

Context example:

a shapeless mass of protoplasm

Similar:

unformed (not having form or shape)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Having no physical form

Context example:

belief in a world filled with...formless but often malevolent beings

Similar:

unbodied (having no body)

 Context examples 

Near the horizon the sun was smouldering dimly, almost obscured by formless mists and vapors, which gave an impression of mass and density without outline or tangibility.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

A colossal and formless something was rushing across the field of his vision.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

Circumstances knit themselves, fitted themselves, shot into order: the chain that had been lying hitherto a formless lump of links was drawn out straight,—every ring was perfect, the connection complete.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

And then, at last, we saw the formless mass of the huge Crawley elm looming before us in the gloom, and there was the broad village street with the glimmer of the cottage windows, and the high front of the old George Inn, glowing from every door and pane and crevice, in honour of the noble company who were to sleep within that night.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

And then my mind made its first earnest effort to comprehend what had been infused into it concerning heaven and hell; and for the first time it recoiled, baffled; and for the first time glancing behind, on each side, and before it, it saw all round an unfathomed gulf: it felt the one point where it stood—the present; all the rest was formless cloud and vacant depth; and it shuddered at the thought of tottering, and plunging amid that chaos.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

He was balancing himself on the dashboard of his car with that resourcefulness of movement that is so peculiarly American—that comes, I suppose, with the absence of lifting work or rigid sitting in youth and, even more, with the formless grace of our nervous, sporadic games.

(The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald)