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The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 (gcide)

Formality \For*mal"i*ty\, n.; pl. {Formalities}. [Cf. F.
formalit['e].]
1. The condition or quality of being formal, strictly
ceremonious, precise, etc.
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2. Form without substance.
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Such [books] as are mere pieces of formality, so
that if you look on them, you look though them.
--Fuller.
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3. Compliance with formal or conventional rules; ceremony;
conventionality.
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Nor was his attendance on divine offices a matter of
formality and custom, but of conscience.
--Atterbury.
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4. An established order; conventional rule of procedure;
usual method; habitual mode.
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He was installed with all the usual formalities.
--C.
Middleton.
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5. pl. The dress prescribed for any body of men, academical,
municipal, or sacerdotal. [Obs.]
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The doctors attending her in their formalities as
far as Shotover. --Fuller.
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6. That which is formal; the formal part.
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It unties the inward knot of marriage, . . . while
it aims to keep fast the outward formality.
--Milton.
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7. The quality which makes a thing what it is; essence.
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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.
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The formality of the vow lies in the promise made to
God. --Bp.
Stillingfleet.
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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.
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