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To make a formal or official examination of the state of, as troops, and the like; as, to review a regiment.

act of performing divine or solemn service, as established by law, precept, or custom; a formal act of religion or other solemn duty; a solemn observance; a ceremony; as, the rites of freemasonry. He looked with indifference on rites, names, and forms of ecclesiastical polity. Macaulay.

A written or printed scroll or sheet of paper; a document; especially, a formal list or inventory; a list or catalogue annexed to a larger document, as to a will, a lease, a statute, etc.

Hence, characterized by excessive subtilty, or needlessly minute subdivisions; pedantic; formal.

The method or subtitles the schools of philosophy; scholastic formality; scholastic doctrines or philosophy. The spirit of the old scholasticism . . . spurned laborious investigation and slow induction. J. P. Smith.

Regular; uniform; formal; as, a set discourse; a set battle. "The set phrase of peace." Shak.

Stitched according to a formal pattern. "An old set-stiched chair, valanced, and fringed with party-colored worsted bobs." Sterne.

The quality or state of being set; formality; obstinacy. "The starched setness of a sententious writer." R. Masters.

or giving possession, under legal sanction; the act of giving or conferring anything in a formal and permanent manner. My flocks, my fields, my woods, my pastures take, With settlement as good as law can make. Dryden.

e authorized by the courts to be granted by their officers as a matter of course, without formal application being made to them in open court; -- so called because anciently moved for by the attorneys at side bar, that is, informally. Burril. -- Side box, a box or inclosed seat on the side of a theater. To insure a si…

To assign or convey formally; -- used with away.

pecially in speaking to elders or superiors; sometimes, also, used in the way of emphatic formality. "What's that to you, sir" Sheridan.

An instantaneous photograph made, usually with a hand camera, without formal posing of, and often without the foreknowledge of, the subject.

A gathering of people for social purposes; an informal party or reception; as, a church sociable. [Colloq. U. S.]

of any community in its social relations and influences; those who mutually give receive formal entertainments. Society of Jesus. See Jesuit. -- Society verses Etym: [a translation of F. vers de société], the lightest kind of lyrical poetry; verses for the amusement of polite society.

Ceremoniousness; impressiveness; seriousness; grave earnestness; formal dignity; gravity. With much glory and great solemnity. Chaucer. The statelines and gravity of the Spaniards shows itself in the solemnity of their language. Addison. These promises were often made with great solemnity and confirmed with an oath. J.…

In a solemn manner; with gravity; seriously; formally. There in deaf murmurs solemnly are wise. Dryden. I do solemnly assure the reader. Swift.

To utter a speech, discourse, or harangue; to adress a public assembly formally. Many of the nobility made themselves popular by speaking in Parliament against those things which were most grateful to his majesty. Clarendon.

formal discourse in public; oration; harangue. The constant design of these orators, in all their speeches, was to drive some one particular point. Swift.

Intent; real meaning; -- opposed to the letter, or to formal statement; also, characteristic quality, especially such as is derived from the individual genius or the personal character; as, the spirit of an enterprise, of a document, or the like.