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.
'T is education forms the common mind.
Pope.
Thus formed for speed, he challenges the wind.
Dryden. 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.
The diplomatic politicians . . . who formed by far the majority.
Burke. 4. To provide with a form, as a hare. See Form, n., 9.
The melancholy hare is formed in brakes and briers.
Drayton. 5. (Gram.) To derive by grammatical rules, as by adding the proper suffixes and affixes.
Form
(Form), v. i.
1. To take a form, definite shape, or arrangement; as, the infantry should form in column.
2. To run to a form, as a hare. B. Jonson.
To form on (Mil.), to form a lengthened line with reference to (any given object) as a basis.
Formal
(For"mal) n. [L. formic + alcohol.] (Chem.) See Methylal.
Formal
(Form"al) a. [L. formalis: cf. F. formel.]
1. Belonging to the form, shape, frame, external appearance, or organization of a thing.
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.
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. 3. 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. 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.
A cold-looking, formal garden, cut into angles and rhomboids.
W. Irwing.
She took off the formal cap that confined her hair.
Hawthorne. 5. Having the form or appearance without the substance or essence; external; as, formal duty; formal
worship; formal courtesy, etc.
