formation : Idioms & Phrases

• noun a word invented (usually unwittingly by subtracting an affix) on the assumption that a familiar word derives from it
  

WordNet

• noun an expression introduced into one language by translating it from another language
  loan translation; calque.
  
  • `superman' is a calque for the German `Ubermensch'

WordNet

• (Geol.), the series of rocks (including sandstones, shales, limestones, and conglomerates, with beds of coal) which make up the strata of the Carboniferous age ∨ period. See the Diagram under Geology.

Webster 1913

• . See Cretaceous formation, under Cretaceous.

Webster 1913

• (Geol.), the series of strata of various kinds, including beds of chalk, green sand, etc., formed in the Cretaceous period; called also the chalk formation. See the Diagram under Geology.

Webster 1913

• noun (geology) the geological features of the earth
  formation.
  

WordNet

• noun the heat evolved or absorbed during the formation of one mole of a substance from its component elements
  

WordNet

• noun a formation of troops
  

WordNet

• noun the transformation of a gamma-ray photon into an electron and a positron when the photon passes close to an atomic nucleus
  pair production; pair creation.
  

WordNet

• noun forming again (especially with improvements or removal of defects); renewing and reconstituting
  regeneration.
  

WordNet

Re`-for*ma"tion noun

Definitions

1. The act of forming anew; a second forming in order; as, the reformation of a column of troops into a hollow square.

Webster 1913

• noun (psychiatry) a defense mechanism in which a person unconsciously develops attitudes and behavior that are the opposite of unacceptable repressed desires and impulses and serve to conceal them
  
  • his strict morality is just a reaction formation to hide his sexual drive

WordNet

• noun a complex neural network in the central core of the brainstem; monitors the state of the body and functions in such processes as arousal and sleep and attention and muscle tone
  RF.
  

WordNet

• . (a) (Biol) A mode of reproduction resembling multitude fission, common among Protozoa, in which the organism breaks up into a number of pieces, or spores, each of which eventually develops into an organism like the parent form. Balfour. (b) The formation of reproductive cells or spores, as in the growth of bacilli.

Webster 1913