semiform

Noun

1. A partial or imperfect form.
   • For seventeen years he had kept death at bay, and, at the time I speak of, medical diagnosis revealed that but one lung supported his remnant of life; thet that semiform of life seemed equal to the prime of many a hale...
   • Prior to that it was in a semiform state for 2 years, semiform state being that various groups have gotten together to say there should be a committee, so that would be approximately 5 years' life to the committee. -...
   • The semiform is covered with a thermoplastic bar preheated in a special chamber up to superelastic state . - 1990, Dhanjoo N. Ghista, Clinical Cardiac Assessment, Interventions, and Assist Technology, page 152:
2. A crystal structure that is more elaborate than the simplest (primitive) form but which does not include all the faces and symmetry elements characteristic of the full crystal system.
   • This semiform π (312) is again to be observed on crystal No. 13, though it is there represented by only a single face. - 1882, L. Fletcher, “Crystallographic Notes”, in London, Edinburgh and Dublin Philosophical...
   • As crystals of tourmaline do not rotate the plane of polarisation, it is probable that in the case of the present crystal the hemimorphic development is of a semiform, similar to those which have been observed on...
   • The eight normals of the tetragonal scalenohedron may carry the eight faces of a semiform in other ways than asymmetrically as regards the systematic planes. - 1895, Nevil Story-Maskelyne, Crystallography: A Treatise on...