Formal /(fôr"mal)/

For·mal

Formal

Belonging to the form, shape, frame, external appearance, or organization of a thing.
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.
— Holder.
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.
— Shak.
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.
— W. Irwing.

She took off the formal cap that confined her hair.
— Hawthorne.
Having the form or appearance without the substance or essence; external; as, formal duty; formal worship; formal courtesy, etc.
Dependent in form; conventional.
Still in constraint your suffering sex remains, Or bound in formal or in real chains.
— Pope.
Sound; normal. [Obs.]
To make of him a formal man again.
— Shak.