Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. character, style.

1830		Egan Finish to the Adventures of Tom and Jerry (1889) 221: He with a fine slashing Yankee Black: Tom was very much pleased with his form, and flattered himself a second Molineaux was at hand.
1884		‘’Arry at a Political Pic-Nic’ in Punch 11 Oct. 180/1: Athletics ain’t ’ardly my form.
1892		H. Lawson ‘The Captain of the Push’ in Roderick (1967–9) I 188: You must prove that you’re a blazer—you must prove that you have grit / Worthy of a Gory Bleeder—you must show your form a bit.
1900		Bulletin (Sydney) 10 Feb. 24/4: On ‘form’ he is still apparently superior to young Dawson, who met him on level terms last year and was altogether outplayed at the business end of the match.
1926		‘Sapper’ Final Count 783: This has become a little above our form.
1954		Wodehouse Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit 14: I know his form backwards. Flashy, but no staying power.
1968		S. Gore Holy Smoke 10: I know your form: all you’re after is a buckshee look at the battle.
1973		T. Lewis Billy Rags [ebook] I’d got his form from a mate of mine while I’d been outside.
2001		D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 72/2: form n. 1 courage, honour, bravery, charisma, status.
2004		(con. 1960s-70s) T. Taylor Top Fellas 94/2: To have ‘good form’ meant you didn’t fight with anything but your fists [...] Later on ‘good form’ meant that your gang was strong, was feared.
2013		T. Peacock More You Bet 8: Someone’s history or behaviour might have been referred to as their ‘form’ [...] ‘We all know his form’.

2. the accepted way of doing things.

1873		Belgravia Feb. n.p.: The demeanour and conduct which the golden youth of the period call good form was known to their fathers as bad manners [F&H].
1879		‘’Arry at the Gaiety’ in Punch 5 July 309/1: Two-and-a-tanner is stiff, but you do have to pay for good form.
1890		‘’Arry on the ’Oliday Season’ in Punch 16 Aug. 74/1: Ah! Nobbles obliges, old pardner, and great is the power of ‘form.’.
1890		Speaker 22 Feb. 211: Still, after all, we doubt very much whether it be fair, or right, or even prudent it certainly is not good form to publish to a world of Gallios a lot of irreverent bar-mess and circuit good stories, worked up about living Lord Chancellors, Lord Justices, and other present occupants of the judicial bench [F&H].
1903		A.H. Lewis Boss 188: I have an absolute mania for everything that’s form.
1934		Wodehouse Right Ho, Jeeves 28: Crashing in at a moment when she knew that solitude and repose were of the essence was scarcely [...] the good old form.
1945		G. Fairlie Capt. Bulldog Drummond 113: I just mentioned the matter to them [...] it’s a matter of form, these days.
1956		L. Shapiro Sixth of June (1958) 203: What’s the form, Parker?
1972		P. Fordham Inside the Und. 109: He’s out of his class and he doesn’t know the form.
1974		G.F. Newman You Flash Bastard 52: All bar the window dresser and the van driver had previous, so knew the form and just how good their chances of going down were.
2002		J. Cameron Hell on Hoe Street 103: He gave out the SP on the form round Karachi police work.

3. (UK Und.) previous convictions; a criminal record.

1953		B. Behan Scarperer (1966) 37: I know you’ve a lot of form and I know what you’d get.
1957		P. Beveridge Inside the C.I.D. 11: This looks like the man you want. He’s got some ‘form’ for screwing (house-breaking).
1962		F. Norman in Police and the Public in Norman’s London (1969) 128: I should think he could get five years, with his form.
1974		G.F. Newman You Flash Bastard 31: Be a long job checking just names through CRO – that’s assuming whoever stuck up the right name and has form.
1983		J. Sullivan ‘Wanted’ Only Fools and Horses [TV script] After all, you’ve got form ain’t yer! I mean, you still ain’t finished that two years suspended yet!
1984		‘Derek Raymond’ He Died with His Eyes Open 184: They both had form, and they knew there were still enough judges and juries [...] to find them guilty.
1984		B. Ellem Doing Time 189: form: a person’s criminal or prison record.
1992		I. Rankin Wolfman 31: He’s got form as long as your inside leg.
1992		G. Disher Paydirt [ebook] ‘Have you got form?’ [...] ‘Not me, mate’.
1999		P. Temple Black Tide (2012) [ebook] Brendan’s got more form than Phar Lap.
2000		(con. 1977) D. Peace Nineteen seventy-seven 8: Boyfriend, one Stephen Barton [...] Some form for burglary, GBH.
2001		D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 72/2: form n. 2 an inmate's reputation, his criminal credentials.
2007		N. ‘Razor’ Smith Raiders 195: He had a bit of form for handling stolen goods.
2014		T. Black Artefacts of the Dead [ebook] She’s a drug-addled prostitute and you are her pimp who has form for beating the living daylights out of her.

4. in fig. non-criminal use of sense 3.

1980		T. Lewis GBH 172: ‘[O]n the basis of the facts, the odds are on Mickey.’ ‘But not the form,’ I said.
2009		T. Black Gutted 253: I couldn’t trust he wouldn’t go radge and carve up this Gibby kid.
2010		K. Richards Life 13: So there was some form on the books already.