[ad. L. formātiōnem, n. of action f. form-āre to FORM: see -ATION.]
1. The action or process of forming; a putting or coming into form; creation, production.
c. 1450. Chester Pl. (Shaks. Soc.), I. 10.
| The worlde, that is bouth voyde and vayne, | |
| I forme in the formacion, | |
| With a dongion of darckenes, | |
| Which never shall have endinge. |
1480. Caxton, Chron. Eng., cclvii. Aboute this tyme there was a great formation of monasteries.
1530. Palsgr., 12. The rules that I shall gyve for the formation of tenses.
1656. Cowley, Davideis, IV. note, xxvi. The Formation of the Body in the Womb.
1707. Curios. in Husb. & Gard., 315. The Formation of Barnacles is exactly the same.
1830. Disraeli, Chas. I., III. iv. 43. The complete formation of this administration was interrupted by the death of the Earl of Bedford.
1853. W. Gregory, Inorg. Chem. (ed. 4), 236. The escape of hydrogen and the formation of a neutral salt.
1863. Geo. Eliot, Romola, I. xi. His mind had really reached a new stage in its formation of a purpose.
2. concr. The thing formed.
1646. Sir T. Browne, Pseud. Ep., III. vi. 117. Thus in regard the Cub comes forth involved in the Chorion, a thick and tough membrane obscuring the formation, and which the Dam doth after bite and tear asunder.
1800. Med. Jrnl., III. 501. Which frequently excite considerable distress in the minds of pregnant women, who meet with alarming occurrences liable to agitate the mind, and thence give them painful apprehensions of their being productive of some disgusting formation in their children.
1872. Morris, Eng. Accid., xviii. 234. Modern formations are numerous, as acquittal, disposal, avowal, denial, &c.
3. The manner in which a thing is formed with respect to the disposition of its parts; formal structure, conformation.
1774. Goldsm., Nat. Hist. (1776), II. 324. These holes are dug with so much art, that there seems the design of an architect in the formation.
1808. Med. Jrnl., XIX. 325. I do not recollect whether I was led to this train of thinking by reading the remarks of Mr. Cornelius Varley, in your Journal of May last, (amongst the articles of Intelligence in that Number) as to the formation of clouds, &c. or whether those remarks strengthened my opinion.
1845. Budd, Dis. Liver, 253. The liver, like other organs, varies much in size, in different persons, quite independently of disease, from mere peculiarities of formation.
1867. Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., Formation … the particulars of a ship’s build.
4. Mil. An arrangement or disposition of troops.
1796–7. Instr. & Reg. Cavalry (1813), 98. If on a rear division.—The divisions of the column each countermarches, and the formation becomes the same as to the front.
1802. in C. James, Milit. Dict.
1832. Regul. Instr. Cavalry, II. 20. The Marches and Formations must be executed as often by the left as by the right, forming and marching off in different ways, for the greater variety of practice.
1879. Froude, Cæsar, xxii. 388. The usual Roman formation in battle was in triple line.
5. Geol. (See quots.)
1815. W. Phillips, Outl. Min. & Geol. (1818), 88, note. The term formation is not always used to express a deposite consisting only of a single stratum or bed; it is also commonly used to designate a series of beds or strata, which being intimately associated, and containing the same description of organic remains, are thence, as well as from a variety of other circumstances obvious to the experienced geologist, considered to be of contemporaneous formation.
1833. Lyell, Princ. Geol., i. (1874) 4 The term ‘formation’ … expresses in geology any assemblage of rocks which have some character in common, whether of origin, age, or composition.
1881. Nature, XXIV. 5 May, 14/2. Formation, by which, adopting a terminology now in much favour on the Continent, we mean the lithological character and origin of the rock, and not, as is generally understood by the word in this country, a subdivision of the stratigraphical series.
6. attrib., as formation-stage; formation-level (see quot.).
1888. Lockwood’s Dict. Terms Mech. Engin., Formation Level, the level of the tops of the embankments and bottoms of the cuttings of a railway upon which the ballast is laid.
1892. Gladstone, in Daily News, 8 Sept., 3/1. In the formation stage of its existence.
¶ = INFORMATION.
c. 1470. Henry the Minstrel, Wallace, V. 977.
| Pardown he ast off the repreiff befor, | |
| In to the chass; and said, he suld no mor | |
| Formacioune [ed. 1570, Information] mak off him that was so gud. |
Hence Formational a. [see -AL], of or pertaining to formation or formations.
1886. Amer. Jrul. Sc., Ser. III. XXXII. 244. The chapters treat in succession of lithological, structural, dynamical, paleontological, formational and historical geology.
