formless

formless, unformed, shapeless are comparable when they mean having no definite or recognizable form.

Something is formless which is so fluid or so shifting in its outlines, structure, or character that it does not assume, or is incapable of assuming, a fixed or determinate form

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the rising world of waters . . . won from the void and formless infinite— Milton

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sprang from the billows of the formless flood— Shelley

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a formless fear

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the formless welter of his prose works— Saintsbury

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Something is unformed which has existence but has not yet attained the form or character proper to it when it has reached the height of its possible growth or development

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an unformed girl of twelve

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an unformed mind

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1unformed genius

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Often it suggests crudeness or callousness

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very clever in some ways—and very unformed— childish almost—in others— Ward

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this unformed government is the "legitimate" one— Gorrell

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Something is shapeless which lacks or has lost the clear- cut outline or contour that is regarded as proper to a thing or essential to its beauty

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a shapeless old woman

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{

beat a silver dish into a shapeless mass

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Conversation, which before had a beginning and an end, now grew shapeless and interminable— Richard Hughesy

Analogous words: fluid, *liquid: rough, raw, crude, *rude