Formal

6 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Formal \For"mal\ (f[^o]r"mal), n. [L. formic + alcohol.] (Chem.)
     See {Methylal}.

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Formal \Form"al\ (f[^o]rm"al), a. [L. formalis: cf. F. formel.]


     1. Belonging to the form, shape, frame, external appearance,
        or organization of a thing.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     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.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              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.
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     3. Done in due form, or with solemnity; according to regular
        method; not incidental, sudden or irregular; express; as,
        he gave his formal consent.
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              His obscure funeral . . .
              No noble rite nor formal ostentation. --Shak.
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     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.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              A cold-looking, formal garden, cut into angles and
              rhomboids.                            --W. Irwing.
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              She took off the formal cap that confined her hair.
                                                    --Hawthorne.
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     5. Having the form or appearance without the substance or
        essence; external; as, formal duty; formal worship; formal
        courtesy, etc.
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     6. Dependent in form; conventional.
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              Still in constraint your suffering sex remains,
              Or bound in formal or in real chains. --Pope.
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     7. Sound; normal. [Obs.]
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              To make of him a formal man again.    --Shak.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     {Formal cause}. See under {Cause}.
  
     Syn: Precise; punctilious; stiff; starched; affected; ritual;
          ceremonial; external; outward.
  
     Usage: {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.
            [1913 Webster]

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Methylal \Meth"yl*al\, n. [Methylene + alcohol.] (Chem.)
     A light, volatile liquid, {H2C(OCH3)2}, regarded as a complex
     ether, and having a pleasant ethereal odor. It is obtained by
     the partial oxidation of methyl alcohol. Called also
     {formal}.
     [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  formal
       adj 1: being in accord with established forms and conventions and
              requirements (as e.g. of formal dress); "pay one's
              formal respects"; "formal dress"; "a formal ball";
              "the requirement was only formal and often ignored";
              "a formal education" [ant: {informal}]
       2: characteristic of or befitting a person in authority;
          "formal duties"; "an official banquet"
       3: (of spoken and written language) adhering to traditional
          standards of correctness and without casual, contracted,
          and colloquial forms; "the paper was written in formal
          English" [ant: {informal}]
       4: represented in simplified or symbolic form [syn: {conventional},
           {schematic}]
       5: logically deductive; "formal proof"
       6: refined or imposing in manner or appearance; befitting a
          royal court; "a courtly gentleman" [syn: {courtly}, {elegant},
           {stately}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  253 Moby Thesaurus words for "formal":
     High-Church, Latinate, accepted, acknowledged, adjectival,
     admitted, adverbial, anatomic, approved, architectonic,
     architectural, arranged, attributive, authorized, awkward,
     baccalaureate service, baptismal, being done, bloated, bombastic,
     businesslike, byname, celebration, ceremonial, ceremonious,
     ceremony, chivalric, chivalrous, cognominal, comme il faut,
     commencement, conditional, confining, conformable, conjunctive,
     constructional, conventional, conventionalized, convocation,
     copulative, correct, courtly, cramped, cumbrous, customary,
     de rigueur, decent, decorous, definite, demure, dignified,
     diminutive, distant, dress uniform, earnest, edificial,
     elephantine, empty formality, epithetic, established, eucharistic,
     evening dress, exact, exacting, exercise, exercises, explicit,
     express, extrinsic, fixed, flatulent, forced, formal dress,
     formalist, formalistic, formality, formalized, formational,
     formative, formulaic, formular, formulary, frowning, full dress,
     function, functional, gallant, gassy, glossematic, graduation,
     graduation exercises, grammatic, grandiloquent, grave, grim,
     grim-faced, grim-visaged, guinde, habitual, halting, harmonious,
     heavy, honorific, hypocoristic, impersonal, in hand, in name only,
     inaugural, inauguration, inflated, inflexible, initiation, inkhorn,
     intransitive, knightly, labored, lawful, leaden, legal, legalistic,
     limited, linking, liturgic, liturgistic, liturgy, long-faced,
     lumbering, meet, methodical, modal, morphological, morphotic,
     mummery, nominal, nominative, normal, observance, office, official,
     old-fashioned, old-world, ordered, orderly, organic, organismal,
     orthodox, ostensible, outward, participial, paschal, pedantic,
     performance, plastic, pompous, ponderous, pontifical,
     postpositional, precise, prepositional, prescribed, pretended,
     prim, pro forma, professed, pronominal, proper, punctilious,
     purported, quasi, received, recognized, regalia, regular,
     religious ceremony, reserved, right, rigid, rite, rite de passage,
     rite of passage, ritual, ritualistic, routine, sacramental,
     sacramentarian, sedate, seemly, self-called, self-christened,
     self-important, self-styled, serious, service, sesquipedalian, set,
     so-called, sober, sober-minded, sobersided, soi-disant, solemn,
     solemnity, solemnization, somber, square, staid, standard,
     starched, stately, steady, stiff, stilted, stone-faced, straight,
     straight-faced, strait-laced, straitened, strict, structural,
     stuffy, stylized, substantive, substructural, superficial,
     superstructural, supposed, surface, swollen, symmetrical,
     syntactic, systematic, tagmemic, tails, tectonic, textural,
     thoughtful, titular, traditional, transitive, tumid, turgid,
     tuxedo, unbending, unchanging, uniform, unsmiling, unwieldy, usual,
     verbal, weighty, well-ordered, well-regulated, would-be
  
  

From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (27 SEP 03) [foldoc]:

  FORMAL
       
          1. FORmula MAnipulation Language.
       
          An early {Fortran} extension for {symbolic mathematics}.
       
          ["FORMAL, A Formula Manipulation Language", C.K. Mesztenyi,
          Computer Note CN-1, CS Dept, U Maryland (Jan 1971)].
       
          2.  A data manipulation language for nonprogrammers from {IBM}
          {LASC}.
       
          ["FORMAL: A Forms-Oriented and Visual-Directed Application
          System", N.C. Shu, IEEE Computer 18(8):38-49 (1985)].
       
          (1994-12-06)