Language: en
Meaning: (transitive,idiomatic)Toexertconsiderableefforttochange(someone or something) into adesiredstate.Synonyms:beat into shape,get into shape,knock into shape,whip into shape1699, Gilbert, Bishop of Sarum [i.e.,Gilbert Burnet], “Article XXVIII. Of the Lord’s Supper.”, inAn Exposition of the Thirty-nine Articles of the Church of England.[…], London:[…]R[obert]Roberts, for Ri[chard]Chiswell,[…],→OCLC,page339:[…]Men did not knovv hovv to mould and frame it[the doctrine of transubstantiation]; but at laſt it vvaslicked into ſhape; the vvhole Philoſophy being caſt into ſuch a Mould as agreed vvith it.1897,Charlotte M[aria] Mason, “The Parent as Schoolmaster”, inParents and Children[…], London:Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co.[…],→OCLC,page59:"People send us their cubs tolick into shape, and what can we do?" Now the answer to this query concerns parents rather closely: what and how much can the schoolmaster do to make the boy "sit up" who has not been to the manner bred?1916,Angela Brazil, “A Scare”, inThe Luckiest Girl in the School, New York, N.Y.:Frederick A. StokesCompany, published1922,page130:“I believe we’d just better train up for all we’re worth,” she said at the committee meeting. “It’ll take ages tolickan eleveninto shape. What we want is to get a cricket atmosphere into the school. You can’t develop these things all in a few weeks. You’ve got to catch your kids young and teach them, before you get a school with a reputation. I feel with all the games that we’re simply building foundations at present at the Seaton High. This term especially is spade-work. I’ll do all I can to get things going, but it will be the Games Captain who comes after me who’ll reap the reward.”1919,L[ucy] M[aud] Montgomery, “The Good-Conduct Club”, inRainbow Valley, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.:Frederick A[bbott] Stokes Company,→OCLC,page243:You're disgracing your pa and I feel for him.[…]And I'd like to see him happy and comfortable, with his buttons on and his meals decent, and you young oneslicked into shape, and that old cat of a Martha put inherproper place.1922August, Baroness Orczy [i.e.,Emma Orczy], “The Fisherman’s Rest”, inThe Triumph of the Scarlet Pimpernel, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.:George H[enry] Doran Company,→OCLC,§ 2,page126:Believe me, Mr. Jellyband was in no two minds about "them murderin' furriners over yonder" who had done away with their King and Queen and all their nobility and quality, and whom England had at last decided tolick into shape.1944March–April, Chas. S. Lake, “Some C.M.Es. I Have Known: VIII—Sir H. N. Gresley”, inThe Railway Magazine, London: Tothill Press,→ISSN,→OCLC, page75:After wrestling with this material whenever opportunity occurred during the next two or three weeks I got matters sorted out and sent the article to[Nigel] Gresley, mentioning in so doing that I felt it still required somelicking into shape, and would he please be perfectly frank in dealing with it.
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