n. [ OE. & F. forme, fr. L. forma; cf. Skr. dhariman. Cf. Firm. ] 1. The shape and structure of anything, as distinguished from the material of which it is composed; particular disposition or arrangement of matter, giving it individuality or distinctive character; configuration; figure; external appearance. [ 1913 Webster ]

The form of his visage was changed. Dan. iii. 19. [ 1913 Webster ]

And woven close close, both matter, form, and style. Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Constitution; mode of construction, organization, etc.; system; as, a republican form of government. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. Established method of expression or practice; fixed way of proceeding; conventional or stated scheme; formula; as, a form of prayer. [ 1913 Webster ]

Those whom form of laws
Condemned to die. Dryden. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. Show without substance; empty, outside appearance; vain, trivial, or conventional ceremony; conventionality; formality; as, a matter of mere form. [ 1913 Webster ]

Though well we may not pass upon his life
Without the form of justice. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

5. Orderly arrangement; shapeliness; also, comeliness; elegance; beauty. [ 1913 Webster ]

The earth was without form and void. Gen. i. 2. [ 1913 Webster ]

He hath no form nor comeliness. Is. liii. 2. [ 1913 Webster ]

6. A shape; an image; a phantom. [ 1913 Webster ]

7. That by which shape is given or determined; mold; pattern; model. [ 1913 Webster ]

8. A long seat; a bench; hence, a rank of students in a school; a class; also, a class or rank in society. “Ladies of a high form.” Bp. Burnet. [ 1913 Webster ]

9. The seat or bed of a hare. [ 1913 Webster ]

As in a form sitteth a weary hare. Chaucer. [ 1913 Webster ]

10. (Print.) The type or other matter from which an impression is to be taken, arranged and secured in a chase. [ 1913 Webster ]

11. (Fine Arts) The boundary line of a material object. In (painting), more generally, the human body. [ 1913 Webster ]

12. (Gram.) The particular shape or structure of a word or part of speech; as, participial forms; verbal forms. [ 1913 Webster ]

13. (Crystallog.) The combination of planes included under a general crystallographic symbol. It is not necessarily a closed solid. [ 1913 Webster ]

14. (Metaph.) That assemblage or disposition of qualities which makes a conception, or that internal constitution which makes an existing thing to be what it is; -- called essential or substantial form, and contradistinguished from matter; hence, active or formative nature; law of being or activity; subjectively viewed, an idea; objectively, a law. [ 1913 Webster ]

15. Mode of acting or manifestation to the senses, or the intellect; as, water assumes the form of ice or snow. In modern usage, the elements of a conception furnished by the mind's own activity, as contrasted with its object or condition, which is called the matter; subjectively, a mode of apprehension or belief conceived as dependent on the constitution of the mind; objectively, universal and necessary accompaniments or elements of every object known or thought of. [ 1913 Webster ]

16. (Biol.) The peculiar characteristics of an organism as a type of others; also, the structure of the parts of an animal or plant. [ 1913 Webster ]

Good form or
Bad form, the general appearance, condition or action, originally of horses, afterwards of persons; as, the members of a boat crew are said to be in good form when they pull together uniformly. The phrases are further used colloquially in description of conduct or manners in society; as, it is not good form to smoke in the presence of a lady. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Formed p. pr. & vb. n. Forming. ] [ F. former, L. formare, fr. forma. See Form, n. ] 1. To give form or shape to; to frame; to construct; to make; to fashion. [ 1913 Webster ]

God formed man of the dust of the ground. Gen. ii. 7. [ 1913 Webster ]

The thought that labors in my forming brain. Rowe. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To give a particular shape to; to shape, mold, or fashion into a certain state or condition; to arrange; to adjust; also, to model by instruction and discipline; to mold by influence, etc.; to train. [ 1913 Webster ]

'T is education forms the common mind. Pope. [ 1913 Webster ]

Thus formed for speed, he challenges the wind. Dryden. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. To go to make up; to act as constituent of; to be the essential or constitutive elements of; to answer for; to make the shape of; -- said of that out of which anything is formed or constituted, in whole or in part. [ 1913 Webster ]

The diplomatic politicians . . . who formed by far the majority. Burke. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. To provide with a form, as a hare. See Form, n., 9. [ 1913 Webster ]

The melancholy hare is formed in brakes and briers. Drayton. [ 1913 Webster ]

5. (Gram.) To derive by grammatical rules, as by adding the proper suffixes and affixes. [ 1913 Webster ]

6. (Elec.) To treat (plates) so as to bring them to fit condition for introduction into a storage battery, causing one plate to be composed more or less of spongy lead, and the other of lead peroxide. This was formerly done by repeated slow alternations of the charging current, but now the plates or grids are coated or filled, one with a paste of red lead and the other with litharge, introduced into the cell, and formed by a direct charging current. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

v. i. 1. To take a form, definite shape, or arrangement; as, the infantry should form in column. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To run to a form, as a hare. B. Jonson. [ 1913 Webster ]

To form on (Mil.), to form a lengthened line with reference to (any given object) as a basis. [ 1913 Webster ]

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. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. Done in due form, or with solemnity; according to regular method; not incidental, sudden or irregular; express; as, he gave his formal consent. [ 1913 Webster ]

His obscure funeral . . .
No noble rite nor formal ostentation. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

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. [ 1913 Webster ]

She took off the formal cap that confined her hair. Hawthorne. [ 1913 Webster ]

5. Having the form or appearance without the substance or essence; external; as, formal duty; formal worship; formal courtesy, etc. [ 1913 Webster ]

6. Dependent in form; conventional. [ 1913 Webster ]

Still in constraint your suffering sex remains,
Or bound in formal or in real chains. Pope. [ 1913 Webster ]

7. Sound; normal. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

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. -- 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 ]

n. [ L. formic + alcohol. ] (Chem.) See Methylal.

n. [ Formic + aldehyde. ] (Chem.) A colorless, volatile liquid, H2CO, resembling acetic or ethyl aldehyde, and chemically intermediate between methyl alcohol and formic acid. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Formic + aldehyde + -in. ] (Chem.) An aqueous solution of formaldehyde, used as a preservative in museums and as a disinfectant. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

n. The practice or the doctrine of strict adherence to, or dependence on, external forms, esp. in matters of religion. [ 1913 Webster ]

Official formalism. Sir H. Rawlinson. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Cf. F. formaliste. ] One overattentive to forms, or too much confined to them; esp., one who rests in external religious forms, or observes strictly the outward forms of worship, without possessing the life and spirit of religion. [ 1913 Webster ]

As far a formalist from wisdom sits,
In judging eyes, as libertines from wits. Young. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. a set of procedures required to make a transaction official.
Syn. -- form, formality. [ WordNet 1.5 ]