Search the Dictionary

Creative; imaginative. [R.] "The formful brain." Thomson.

Pertaining to, or derived from, ants; as, formic acid; in an extended sense, pertaining to, or derived from, formic acid; as, formic ether. Amido formic acid, carbamic acid. -- Formic acid, a colorless, mobile liquid, HCO.OH, of a sharp, acid taste, occurring naturally in ants, nettles, pine needles, etc., and produce…

A Linnæan genus of hymenopterous insects, including the common ants. See Ant.

Like or pertaining to the family Formicaridæ or ant thrushes.

The nest or dwelling of a swarm of ants; an ant-hill.

Resembling, or pertaining to, an ant or ants.

A sensation resembling that made by the creeping of ants on the skin. Dunglison.

One of the family Formicidæ, or ants.

Formidableness. Walpole.

ear and deter from approach, encounter, or undertaking; alarming. They seemed to fear the formodable sight. Dryden. I swell my preface into a volume, and make it formidable, when you see so many pages behind. Drydn.

The quality of being formidable, or adapted to excite dread. Boyle.

In a formidable manner.

Very much afraid. [Obs.] Bailey.

The act or process of giving form or shape to anything; as, in shipbuilding, the exact shaping of partially shaped timbers.

Shapeless; without a determinate form; wanting regularity of shape. -- Form"less*ly, adv. -- Form"less*ness, n.

A prescribed or set form; an established rule; a fixed or conventional method in which anything is to be done, arranged, or said.

Pertaining to, or exhibiting, formularization. Emerson.

The act of formularizing; a formularized or formulated statement or exhibition. C. Kingsley.

To reduce to a forula; to formulate.

A book containing stated and prescribed forms, as of oaths, declarations, prayers, medical formulaæ, etc.; a book of precedents.