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Orderly arrangement; shapeliness; also, comeliness; elegance; beauty. The earth was without form and void. Gen. i. 2. He hath no form nor comeliness. Is. liii. 2.

Devoted to, or done in accordance with, forms or rules; punctilious; regular; orderly; methodical; of a prescribed form; exact; prim; stiff; ceremonious; as, a man formal in his dress, his gait, his conversation. A cold-looking, formal garden, cut into angles and rhomboids. W. Irwing. She took off the formal cap that c…

An established order; conventional rule of procedure; usual method; habitual mode. He was installed with all the usual formalities. C. Middleton.

Preceding in order of time; antecedent; previous; prior; earlier; hence, ancient; long past. For inquire, I pray thee, of the former age. Job. viii. 8. The latter and former rain. Hosea vi. 3.

Forward; onward in time, place, or order; in advance from a given point; on to end; as, from that day forth; one, two, three, and so forth. Lucas was Paul's companion, at the leastway from the sixteenth of the Acts forth. Tyndale. From this time forth, I never will speak word. Shak. I repeated the Ave Maria; the inquis…

rts into which one whole is divided; the quotient of a unit divided by forty; one next in order after the thirty-ninth.

The act of fortifying; the art or science of fortifying places in order to defend them against an enemy.

Next in order after the thirteenth; as, the fourteenth day of the month.

Next in order after the third; the ordinal of four.

To cause; to bring about; to produce. [Obs.] Fear frames disorder, and disorder wounds. Shak.

Belonging to the Order of St. Francis of the Franciscans. Franciscan Brothers, pious laymen who devote themselves to useful works, such as manual labor schools, and other educational institutions; -- called also Brothers of the Third Order of St. Francis. -- Franciscan Nuns, nuns who follow the rule of t. Francis, esp…

Mad; raving; furious; violent; wild and disorderly; distracted. Die, frantic wretch, for this accursed deed! Shak. Torrents of frantic abuse. Macaulay. -- Fran"tic*al*ly, adv. -- Fran"tic*ly, adv. Shak. -- Fran"tic*ness, n. Johnson.

A sect which seceded from the Franciscan Order, chiefly in Italy and Sicily, in 1294, repudiating the pope as an apostate, maintaining the duty of celibacy and poverty, and discountenancing oaths. Called also Fratricellians and Fraticelli.

A brother or member of any religious order, but especially of one of the four mendicant orders, viz: (a) Minors, Gray Friars, or Franciscans. (b) Augustines. (c) Dominicans or Black Friars. (d) White Friars or Carmelites. See these names in the Vocabulary.

That part of the entablature of an order which is between the architrave and cornice. It is a flat member or face, either uniform or broken by triglyphs, and often enriched with figures and other ornaments of sculpture.

A border or edging secured at one edge and left free at the other, usually fluted or crimped like a very narrow flounce.

An ornamental appendage to the border of a piece of stuff, originally consisting of the ends of the warp, projecting beyond the woven fabric; but more commonly made separate and sewed on, consisting sometimes of projecting ends, twisted or plaited together, and sometimes of loose threads of wool, silk, or linen, or nar…

Encircling like a fringe; bordering. [R.] "The fringent air." Emerson.

a country which fronts or faces another country or an unsettled region; the marches; the border, confine, or extreme part of a country, bordering on another country; the border of the settled and cultivated part of a country; as, the frontier of civilization.

Fetid, musty; rank; disordered and offensive to the smell or sight; slovenly; dingy. See Frowzy. "Petticoats in frouzy heaps." Swift.