Dictionary

shape for en · VERB

Etymology

From shape a course (for). Possibly derived from sailors setting sails of specific shape for a given voyage. Alternatively, from sails taking shape when filled by wind.

Meanings

1. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see shape, for.
2. (idiomatic) To head out to a particular destination.
   • We shaped for Pointe-aux-Orignaux, twenty-one miles down in a dead straight line, but twenty-eight by the course we actually took. The redoubtable Baie Ste. Anne lay between us and our destination. It is a bad place for any kind of craft in dirty weather or at low tide, and I would advise canoemen to respect its humours accordingly. 1911 October 14, William Wood, “Alouette”, in The University Magazine, volume X, page 427:
   • We coasted that island one day until we arrived at the South Cape. Then, of course, we shaped for Stolboi, to the southwest, and we passed to the westward of it and landed on Seminov Island first. Then, from Seminov Island, we shaped a course to Barkin, and midway we were dispersed in the gale. 1884, Jeannette inquiry. Before the Committee on Naval Affairs of the United States House of Representatives, Forthy-eighth Congress, →LCCN, page 803:
   • . . . board shortly after, but no news came our way. We remained till 3 p.m., and proceeding to sea, we shaped for Para again, and after an uneventful passage, Para was reached at . . . 1916, William Buchan, The Log of H.M.S. "Bristol", →LCCN, page 61:
   • p.26: Would I! The Wanderlust has, as her sole virtue, the fact that she is indeed a spaceship and she was shaping for Earth. p.95: Actually I'm just marking time until we shape for Earth, because Venus is a Grave Disappointment--and now I'm keeping my fingers crossed that Earth will not be a G.D., too. 1963, Robert A. Heinlein, Podkayne of Mars, →LCCN, pages 26, 95:
   • On the way in we spoke the schooner Marconi, outward bound for the shark grounds off Dahlak, and got a very cheery Buon Giorno from her skipper and crew of happy-go-lucky Sicilians. After she had gone, sailing into the sun, we shaped for the entrance; but for once we had to wait, doing circles off Ras Al Madur, before going in, for the signal hoist to say traffic was outward bound was flying. 1955, John Doody, The Burning Coast, →LCCN, page 165:
   • Barents set a course northeast to get the expedition around North Cape and shaped for Novaya Zemlya, but Rijp refused to follow it. 1961, Edward F. Dolan, Jr., White Battleground; The Conquest Of The Arctic, →LCCN, page 12:

Forms