%formality%

n.; pl. Formalities [ Cf. F. formalité. ] 1. The condition or quality of being formal, strictly ceremonious, precise, etc. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Form without substance. [ 1913 Webster ]

Such [ books ] as are mere pieces of formality, so that if you look on them, you look though them. Fuller. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. Compliance with formal or conventional rules; ceremony; conventionality. [ 1913 Webster ]

Nor was his attendance on divine offices a matter of formality and custom, but of conscience. Atterbury. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. An established order; conventional rule of procedure; usual method; habitual mode. [ 1913 Webster ]

He was installed with all the usual formalities. C. Middleton. [ 1913 Webster ]

5. pl. The dress prescribed for any body of men, academical, municipal, or sacerdotal. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

The doctors attending her in their formalities as far as Shotover. Fuller. [ 1913 Webster ]

6. That which is formal; the formal part. [ 1913 Webster ]

It unties the inward knot of marriage, . . . while it aims to keep fast the outward formality. Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

7. The quality which makes a thing what it is; essence. [ 1913 Webster ]

The material part of the evil came from our father upon us, but the formality of it, the sting and the curse, is only by ourselves. Jer. Taylor. [ 1913 Webster ]

The formality of the vow lies in the promise made to God. Bp. Stillingfleet. [ 1913 Webster ]

8. (Scholastic. Philos.) The manner in which a thing is conceived or constituted by an act of human thinking; the result of such an act; as, animality and rationality are formalities. [ 1913 Webster ]