conform

From Middle English conformen, borrowed from Old French conformer, from Latin conformāre (“to mould, to shape after”)

• Rhymes: -ɔː(r)m
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /kənˈfɔːm/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /kənˈfɔɹm/
• Hyphenation: con‧form

conform (third-person singular simple present conforms, present participle conforming, simple past and past participle conformed)

1. (intransitive, of persons, often followed by to) To act in accordance with expectations; to behave in the manner of others, especially as a result of social pressure.
   • 1822, [Walter Scott], chapter I, in Peveril of the Peak. [...] In Four Volumes, volume I, Edinburgh: Printed for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., OCLC 2392685, pages 5–6:

     [H]e had a dispensation for conforming in outward observances to the Protestant faith.

   • 1839, Charles Darwin, The Voyage of the Beagle, ch. 4:

     [B]y conforming to the dress and habits of the Gauchos, he has obtained an unbounded popularity in the country.

   • 1983, Richard Ellis, The Book of Sharks, Knopf, →ISBN, page 110:

     In any case, most of these sharks are gray or grayish, and they certainly are typical in that they conform to everyone's idea of what a shark is supposed to look like.

2. (intransitive, of things, situations, etc.) To be in accordance with a set of specifications or regulations, or with a policy or guideline.
   • 1919, Hildegard G. Frey, The Camp Fire Girls Do Their Bit, ch. 11:

     In height and breadth it conformed to the prescribed measurements laid down by the rules of the contest.

   • 2006 22 Dec., "Judge Cuts Amount of Vioxx Award ," New York Times (retrieved 7 June 2011):

     A judge in a Texas widow’s lawsuit over the Merck drug Vioxx reduced a $32 million jury award to about $7.75 million on Thursday so that it conformed to state law.

3. (transitive) To make similar in form or nature; to make suitable for a purpose; to adapt.
   • c. 1710, Jonathan Swift, "Vanbrugh's House" in The Poems of Jonathan Swift (1910 edition):

     There is a worm by Phoebus bred,

     By leaves of mulberry is fed,

     Which unprovided where to dwell,

     Conforms itself to weave a cell.

   • 1836, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nature, ch. 6:

     The sensual man conforms thoughts to things; the poet conforms things to his thoughts.

• (to act in accordance with expectations): acquiesce, comply, go along to get along, knuckle under, submit; see also Thesaurus:conform

Borrowed from French conforme.

• IPA^(key): /konˈform/

conform (+dative)

1. according to

• conforma