Dictionary.com
Thesaurus.com
Showing results for take shape. Search instead for take+shape.
Synonyms

take shape

Idioms  

  1. Also, shape up. Turn out, develop, acquire a distinctive form, as in Her reelection campaign is already taking shape, two years before the election, or Can you tell us how the book is shaping up? The first term dates from the mid-1700s and the variant, originally put as shape out, from about 1600.

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

What initially seemed unlikely is now becoming more plausible, with the risk of a stagflationary environment starting to take shape, SimCorp’s Olivier d’Assier said in a note.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 31, 2026

The field of candidates did not take shape until the week of the February filing deadline.

From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 11, 2026

It was uncharacteristically experimental from Wiegman considering this was their first competitive fixture since Euro 2025 and it took time to take shape.

From BBC • Mar. 3, 2026

These elements, including sulfur, exist in solid form within the protoplanetary disk where planets take shape.

From Science Daily • Feb. 11, 2026

As casual as they strove to seem, they both felt something momentous take shape between them, and—though she didn’t for a minute question his intentions—something intimate, too.

From "Strange the Dreamer" by Laini Taylor

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.