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Formal   /fˈɔrməl/   Listen
adjective
Formal  adj.  
1.
Belonging to the form, shape, frame, external appearance, or organization of a thing.
2.
Belonging to the constitution of a thing, as distinguished from the matter composing it; having the power of making a thing what it is; constituent; essential; pertaining to or depending on the forms, so called, of the human intellect. "Of (the sounds represented by) letters, the material part is breath and voice; the formal is constituted by the motion and figure of the organs of speech."
3.
Done in due form, or with solemnity; according to regular method; not incidental, sudden or irregular; express; as, he gave his formal consent. "His obscure funeral... No noble rite nor formal ostentation."
4.
Devoted to, or done in accordance with, forms or rules; punctilious; regular; orderly; methodical; of a prescribed form; exact; prim; stiff; ceremonious; as, a man formal in his dress, his gait, his conversation. "A cold-looking, formal garden, cut into angles and rhomboids." "She took off the formal cap that confined her hair."
5.
Having the form or appearance without the substance or essence; external; as, formal duty; formal worship; formal courtesy, etc.
6.
Dependent in form; conventional. "Still in constraint your suffering sex remains, Or bound in formal or in real chains."
7.
Sound; normal. (Obs.) "To make of him a formal man again."
Formal cause. See under Cause.
Synonyms: Precise; punctilious; stiff; starched; affected; ritual; ceremonial; external; outward. Formal, Ceremonious. When applied to things, these words usually denote a mere accordance with the rules of form or ceremony; as, to make a formal call; to take a ceremonious leave. When applied to a person or his manners, they are used in a bad sense; a person being called formal who shapes himself too much by some pattern or set form, and ceremonious when he lays too much stress on the conventional laws of social intercourse. Formal manners render a man stiff or ridiculous; a ceremonious carriage puts a stop to the ease and freedom of social intercourse.


noun
Formal  n.  (Chem.) See Methylal.





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Formal" Quotes from Famous Books



... is interested in the nature and derivation of governmental institutions and establishments in Europe, in any but the formal respect, should be able to satisfy his curiosity by looking over the shoulders of the professed students of Political Science. Quite properly and profitably that branch of scholarship is occupied with the authentic pedigree of these institutions, and ...
— An Inquiry Into The Nature Of Peace And The Terms Of Its Perpetuation • Thorstein Veblen
... threw Dona Isabel into a flutter; the woman could scarcely contain her curiosity when she came to meet him, for he was not the sort of man to inconvenience himself by mere social visits. Their first formal greetings over, Don Mario surveyed the bare living-room and ...
— Rainbow's End • Rex Beach
... modern English sense, may perhaps be defined as a religious song, less formal and solemn than the ordinary Church hymn—an expression of popular and often naive devotional feeling, a thing intended to be sung outside rather than within church walls. There still linger about the word some echoes of its original ...
— Christmas in Ritual and Tradition, Christian and Pagan • Clement A. Miles
... present relations might never have existed. I must ask your congratulations also," he continued, turning toward the major and his daughter. "My aunt and I have in a sense adopted each other. I came hither to pay her a formal call, and have ...
— His Sombre Rivals • E. P. Roe
... them by the consul for the united kingdoms, Clausen, who spared no pains to make the stay of the expedition at Naples honouring to the mother-country and as pleasant as possible to the guests, as well as in arranging the more formal details of the visit. We had besides the joy of meeting in Italy our comrade from the severe wintering of 1872-3, Eugenio Parent, who soon after had the misfortune to be in the tower of the ironclad Duilio, when the large Armstrong cannon placed there burst, ...
— The Voyage of the Vega round Asia and Europe, Volume I and Volume II • A.E. Nordenskieold


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