How to Use deform in a Sentence

deform

verb
  • The disease eventually causes the bones to deform.
  • The disease eventually deforms the bones.
  • Tires made that way bounce back even if they're deformed all the way to their rim and hub.
    — Sabrina Eaton, cleveland.com, 18 Dec. 2017
  • His face was bruised, his arms and legs were deformed, and he had been burned.
    — Chris Harris, PEOPLE.com, 11 Apr. 2018
  • With the heat of recent fires, parts of that off-road beast are now melted and deformed.
    — New York Times, 2 Feb. 2020
  • There is the sense of these two men, Cope and Marsh, and how their rivalry deforms them.
    — Sam Kashner, VanityFair.com, 19 June 2017
  • Glaciers and ice sheets can be hundreds of feet to miles thick and all that pressure can deform the ice.
    — Erik Klemetti, Discover Magazine, 15 Aug. 2022
  • And the ground began to deform, likely due to flows of magma.
    — Christopher Intagliata, Scientific American, 20 Dec. 2021
  • This mesh helps keep the ball from deforming when kicked, which stops the ball from veering while in flight.
    — Mark McClusky, WIRED, 30 May 2002
  • Trump’s hands look deformed, and the person on the far left is missing a ring finger.
    — Maxwell Zeff / Gizmodo, Quartz, 4 Mar. 2024
  • The lowest 688 feet of the ice core above the bedrock is made of older ice that is heavily deformed.
    — Laura Baisas, Popular Science, 9 Jan. 2025
  • And when stronger heat waves hit in the future, the roads will be more likely to deform and develop ruts.
    — Leslie Nemo, Discover Magazine, 17 Feb. 2021
  • His feet were slightly deformed from wearing the wrong size.
    — Karen Pilarski, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 15 Aug. 2019
  • The ice pressure had deformed the skull without breaking it.
    — John Schandelmeier, Anchorage Daily News, 27 Mar. 2018
  • If a wheel is deformed, another machine in the shop can grind it true.
    — David Waldstein, New York Times, 1 Mar. 2024
  • Others worry that injecting pay can deform how and why the work is done in the first place.
    — Clive Thompson, Wired, 17 Nov. 2020
  • This is very similar to the force required to stretch a spring, which is much harder to deform than a straight wire.
    — Rhett Allain, Wired, 4 June 2021
  • In some cases, arthritis can even make the joints appear deformed.
    — Sara Novak, Discover Magazine, 11 Jan. 2024
  • The front and rear deform in a crash to absorb all of the impact, spreading it away from the passenger compartment.
    — Blake Z. Rong, Popular Mechanics, 4 Dec. 2018
  • Icequakes can deform ice sheets and contribute to their flow toward the sea.
    — Carolyn Wilke, Discover Magazine, 28 Nov. 2022
  • Solids can also be deformed if enough pressure is applied to them.
    — Manon Bischoff, Scientific American, 23 Jan. 2025
  • The vitamin A then gets recycled and reshaped, ready to be deformed by light once again.
    — Eric Boodman, STAT, 17 May 2018
  • When looking in the mirror, a patient’s own visage might seem deformed.
    — Sarah Kuta, Smithsonian Magazine, 22 Mar. 2024
  • The elements were slowly crushing the base as the gradual movement of the ice sheet deformed the structures.
    — Katie Hunt, CNN, 15 Mar. 2025
  • That means building CO2 turbines with metals that won’t crack, distend, or deform, and making them big enough to take the abuse.
    — Nick Stockton, WIRED, 26 May 2017
  • Her left ear was deformed and cut; her nose was broken; her lower lip split open; and her left cheek discolored.
    — Meagan Flynn, chicagotribune.com, 12 Nov. 2019
  • That shift forces the enclosing cell to deform and turn rigid, taking on the sickled appearance that gives the disease its name.
    — Maryn McKenna, Scientific American, 17 Sep. 2024
  • The press must squeeze the component where needed with robotic control, deforming the part bit by bit.
    — Glenn S. Daehn, The Conversation, 11 Dec. 2019
  • What to Listen For: The wind whipping through the forest at the summit, so strong and constant that the peak’s red spruces have become deformed and only have branches and nettles on one side.
    — Graham Averill, Outside Online, 4 Mar. 2025
  • Doesn’t further engagement with the Holocaust threaten to deform me?
    — Gabra Zackman Emma Kehlbeck Ted Blaisdell, New York Times, 6 Apr. 2025

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'deform.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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