FORM'AL, adjective 1. According to form; agreeable to established mode; regular; methodical. 2. Strictly ceremonious; precise; exact to affectation; as a man formal in his dress, his gait or deportment. 3. Done in due form, or with solemnity; express; according to regular method; not incidental, sudden or irregular. He gave his formal consent to the treaty. 4. Regular; methodical; as the formal stars. 5. Having the form or appearance without the substance or essence; external; as formal duty; formal worship. 6. Depending on customary forms. Still in constraint your suffering sex remains, or bound in formal or in real chains. 7. Having the power of making a thing what it is; constituent; essential. Of letters the material part is breath and voice; the formal is constituted by the motions and figure of the organs of speech. 8. Retaining its proper and essential characteristic; regular; proper. To make of him a formal man again.
Source: Webster's 1828 American Dictionary ↗ · public-domain · returned verbatim, no AI