Verb

To give something a shape and definition.

* 1932 , The American Scholar , page 227, United Chapters of Phi Beta Kappa

The professor never pretended to the academic prerogative of forcing his students into his own channels of reasoning; he entered into and helped shape the discussion but above all he made his men learn to think for themselves and rely upon their own intellectual judgments.

* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-08-03, volume=408, issue=8847, magazine=(The Economist)

, title= Revenge of the nerds , passage=Think of banking today and the image is of grey-suited men in towering skyscrapers. Its future, however, is being shaped in converted warehouses and funky offices in San Francisco, New York and London, where bright young things in jeans and T-shirts huddle around laptops, sipping lattes or munching on free food.}}

To form or manipulate something into a certain shape.

* Prior

Grace shaped her limbs, and beauty decked her face.

* {{quote-news, year=2010, date=December 29, author=Mark Vesty, work=BBC

, title= Wigan 2-2 Arsenal , passage=Bendtner's goal-bound shot was well saved by goalkeeper Ali Al Habsi but fell to Arsahvin on the edge of the area and the Russian swivelled, shaped his body and angled a sumptuous volley into the corner. }}

(of a country, person, etc) To give influence to.

To suit; to be adjusted or conformable.

(Shakespeare)

(obsolete) To imagine; to conceive.

* Shakespeare

Oft my jealousy / Shapes faults that are not.

Verb

(compos)

To make something by merging parts.

The editor composed a historical journal from many individual letters.

Try to compose your thoughts.

* Bishop Sprat

Zeal ought to be composed of the highest degrees of all pious affection.

To make up the whole; to constitute.

A church is composed of its members.

* I. Watts

A few useful things compose their intellectual possessions.

(nonstandard) To comprise.

(transitive, or, intransitive) To construct by mental labor; to think up; particularly, to produce or create a literary or musical work.

The orator composed his speech over the week prior.

Nine numbered symphonies, including the Fifth, were composed by Beethoven.

It's difficult to compose without absolute silence.

* Alexander Pope

Let me compose / Something in verse as well as prose.

* B. R. Haydon

the genius that composed such works as the "Standard" and "Last Supper"

(sometimes, reflexive) To calm; to free from agitation.

The defendant couldn't compose herself and was found in contempt.

* Dryden

Compose thy mind; / Nor frauds are here contrived, nor force designed.

To arrange the elements of a photograph or other picture.

To settle (an argument, dispute etc.); to come to a settlement.

* 2010 , (Christopher Hitchens), Hitch-22 , Atlantic 2011, p. 280:

By trying his best to compose matters with the mullahs, he had sincerely shown that he did not seek a violent collision

To arrange in proper form; to reduce to order; to put in proper state or condition.

* Dryden

In a peaceful grave my corpse compose .

* Milton

How in safety best we may / Compose our present evils.

(printing, dated) To arrange (types) in a composing stick for printing; to typeset.