ill-shapen
Học thuậtThân thiện
Definition
- Adjective:
- Badly formed or misshapen; having an unnatural or distorted shape: The word describes something that is deformed, malformed, or contorted, often to the point of being considered ugly or abnormal.
Usage Examples
- Adjective:
- The potter discarded the ill-shapen vase, as its form was too distorted to be sold.
- Archaeologists found an ill-shapen statue, its features warped by time and pressure.
- The disease left his hands ill-shapen and weak.
Advanced Usage
- Descriptive Use: Often used in literary or formal contexts to describe objects, body parts, or abstract concepts that are physically or metaphorically distorted.
- The ill-shapen policies of the past led to widespread social inequality. (Metaphorical use implying flawed or malformed ideas.)
Variants and Related Words
- Misshapen (adj): The more common modern variant with the same meaning.
- The misshapen fruit was still perfectly sweet.
- Deformed (adj): Similar in meaning, often with a stronger connotation of abnormality from a standard form.
- Malformed (adj): Specifically suggests faulty or abnormal formation, often from birth or development.
Synonyms
- Deformed
- Distorted
- Malformed
- Contorted
- Twisted
- Warped
Antonyms
- Well-formed
- Shapely
- Symmetrical
- Regular
- Proportional
Notes on Usage
- "Ill-shapen" is an archaic or literary form. In contemporary English, "misshapen" is the standard spelling and more commonly used term.
- It is typically used as an attributive adjective (placed before the noun it modifies, e.g., ) but can also be predicative (e.g., ).
- The word carries a negative aesthetic judgment, implying ugliness or undesirability due to the poor shape.
Adjective
- so badly formed or out of shape as to be ugly
- deformed thalidomide babies
- his poor distorted limbs
- an ill-shapen vase
- a limp caused by a malformed foot
- misshapen old fingers