Verb

(en verb)

(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 , , Peveril of the Peak , ch. 1:

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

* 1839 , , 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.

To be in accordance with a set of specifications or regulations, or with a policy or guideline.

* 1919 , , 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.

To make similar in form or nature; to make suitable for a purpose; to adapt.

* , "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 , , Nature , ch. 6:

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

Verb

(en verb)

To modify.

* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-08-10, volume=408, issue=8848, magazine=(The Economist)

, title= A new prescription , passage=As the world's drug habit shows, governments are failing in their quest to monitor every London window-box and Andean hillside for banned plants. But even that Sisyphean task looks easy next to the fight against synthetic drugs. No sooner has a drug been blacklisted than chemists adjust their recipe and start churning out a subtly different one.}}

To improve or rectify.

* {{quote-magazine, title=Towards the end of poverty

, date=2013-06-01, volume=407, issue=8838, page=11, magazine=(The Economist) citation , passage=But poverty’s scourge is fiercest below $1.25 (the average of the 15 poorest countries’ own poverty lines, measured in 2005 dollars and adjusted for differences in purchasing power): people below that level live lives that are poor, nasty, brutish and short.}}

To settle an insurance claim.

To change to fit circumstances.