cloudform

English

Etymology

From cloud +‎ form.

Noun

cloudform (countable and uncountable, plural cloudforms)

1. The type or shape of a cloud.
   • 1877, Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society Held at Philadelphia:

     This article which was a sketchy summary of my investigations, contains also the laws of the motions of the lower cloudforms, such as cumulus, cumulo-stratus, conus.

   • 1880, Legislative Documents Submitted to the General Assembly of the State:

     These observations comprise four regular observations daily on the barometer, thermometer, hygrometer, and other instruments, giving the pressure,. temperature, humidity, cloudiness, cloudform, direction, and force of the wind, and the rainfall.

   • 1939, Tanganyika Notes and Records - Issues 7-12, page 126:

     The next five plates depict our commonest and, in its infinite variety, most beautiful cloudform, the cumulus.

2. A collection of particles condensed into a cloud.
   • 1943, The Pegasus - Volumes 1-4, page 237:

     The flyer or gliding pilot knows well the rising air current under cumulus bursts; their flat bottoms show the exact cold-air level at which condensation into cloudform took place.

   • 1944, The Popular Science Monthly - Volume 145, page 216:

     Halos are caused by light shining through ice cloudform, usually marking the advance of a warm front — with rain.

   • 2006, Eric Sloane, Eric Sloane's Book of Storms: Hurricanes, Twisters and Squalls, →ISBN:

     Over five miles up, all cloudform is cirrus in type, being composed of ice.

   • 2010, Paul Williams, The Complete Stories of Theodore Sturgeon - Volume 3, page 104:

     The other was truly alien, a sentient cloudform, an intelligent grouping of tangible electrons.

3. A depiction of a cloud or something resembling a cloud.
   • 1894, Marion Harry Spielmann, The Magazine of Art ... - Volume 17, page 95:

     A sober breadth of treatment and massive dignity of cloudform distinguish “ Evening,” by Mr. J. Olsson, who seems never unmindful of the great importance of the sky in a picture, as too many painters often are.

   • 1923, Country Life - Volume 54:

     To left and right is cloudform or ribbon which the Persian artists derived from the Chinese.

   • 1956, Ernest William Watson, Arthur Leighton Guptill, American Artist, page 52:

     Yet, a satisfyingly few artists want to give their own interpretation of cloudform while there is such a challenge to reproduce clouds as they already exist.