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.