inform
verb
- provide with information
- disclose confidential information to an authority; be an informant
Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /ɪnˈfɔɹm/ / /ɪnˈfɔːm/
adj
Etymology: From Latin īnfōrmis.
- Without regular form; shapeless; ugly; deformed.
“Bleak Crags, and naked Hills, And the whole Prospect so inform and rude”
verb
Etymology: From Middle English informen, enformen, borrowed from Old French enformer, informer (“to train, instruct, inform”), from Latin īnfōrmō (“to shape, form, train, instruct, educate”), from in- (“into”) + fōrma (“form, shape”), equivalent to in- + form.
- To instruct, train (usually in matters of knowledge).
- To communicate knowledge to.
“For he would learn their business secretly, / And then inform his master hastily.”
“I am informed thoroughly of the cause.”
- To impart information or knowledge.
- To act as an informer; denounce.
- To give form or character to; to inspire (with a given quality); to affect, influence (with a pervading principle, idea etc.).
“His sense of religion informs everything he writes.”
“But others declare that no Creature can be made or tranſmuted into a better or vvorſe, or transformed into another ſpecies or ſimilitude, by man, or devill. […] Martinus [i.e., Martin] Delrio the Jeſuit accounts this degeneration of Man into a Beaſt to be an illuſion, deceptive and repugnant to Nature; for, the ſoule of man cannot informe a beaſts body, […]”
- To make known, wisely and/or knowledgeably.
- To direct, guide.
“Don’t forget the code of ethics that informs this profession.”
- To take form; to become visible or manifest; to appear.
“It is the bloody business which informs / Thus to mine eyes.”