\For*mal"i*ty\, n.; pl. {Formalities}. [Cf. F.
formalit['e].]
1. The condition or quality of being formal, strictly
   ceremonious, precise, etc.

2. Form without substance.

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

3. Compliance with formal or conventional rules; ceremony;
   conventionality.

         Nor was his attendance on divine offices a matter of
         formality and custom, but of conscience.
                                               --Atterbury.

4. An established order; conventional rule of procedure;
   usual method; habitual mode.

         He was installed with all the usual formalities.
                                               --C.
                                               Middleton.

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

         The doctors attending her in their formalities as
         far as Shotover.                      --Fuller.

6. That which is formal; the formal part.

         It unties the inward knot of marriage, . . . while
         it aims to keep fast the outward formality.
                                               --Milton.

7. The quality which makes a thing what it is; essence.

         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.

         The formality of the vow lies in the promise made to
         God.                                  --Bp.
                                               Stillingfleet.

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.