Crossword Dictionary

What's The Definition Of Formality?

\For*mal"i*ty\, n.; pl. {Formalities}. [Cf. F. formalit['e].] 1. The condition or quality of being formal, strictly ceremonious, precise, etc. 2. Form without substance. Such [books] as are mere pieces of formality, so that if you look on them, you look though them. --Fuller. 3. Compliance with formal or conventional rules; ceremony; conventionality. Nor was his attendance on divine offices a matter of formality and custom, but of conscience. --Atterbury. 4. An established order; conventional rule of procedure; usual method; habitual mode. He was installed with all the usual formalities. --C. Middleton. 5. pl. The dress prescribed for any body of men, academical, municipal, or sacerdotal. [Obs.] The doctors attending her in their formalities as far as Shotover. --Fuller. 6. That which is formal; the formal part. It unties the inward knot of marriage, . . . while it aims to keep fast the outward formality. --Milton. 7. The quality which makes a thing what it is; essence. The material part of the evil came from our father upon us, but the formality of it, the sting and the curse, is only by ourselves. --Jer. Taylor. The formality of the vow lies in the promise made to God. --Bp. Stillingfleet. 8. (Scholastic. Philos.) The manner in which a thing is conceived or constituted by an act of human thinking; the result of such an act; as, animality and rationality are formalities.