formalist

• POS: Noun
• HYPHEN: for=mal=ist

CIDE DICTIONARY

formalist, n. [Cf. F. formaliste.].

 One overattentive to forms, or too much confined to them; esp., one who rests in external religious forms, or observes strictly the outward forms of worship, without possessing the life and spirit of religion.  [1913 Webster]
"As far a formalist from wisdom sits,
In judging eyes, as libertines from wits."  [1913 Webster]

THESAURUS

formalist

Babbitt, High-Churchist, Holy Willie, Joseph Surface, Mawworm, Middle American, Pecksniff, Pharisee, Philistine, Sabbatarian, Tartuffe, Vicar of Bray, affecter, anal character, bluestocking, bourgeois, burgher, canter, canting hypocrite, chameleon, compulsive character, conformer, conformist, conventionalist, dissembler, dissimulator, formularist, formulist, hypocrite, lip server, lip worshiper, liturgist, methodologist, middle-class type, model child, organization man, parrot, pedant, perfectionist, pharisee, pietist, pious fraud, plastic person, poser, precieuse, precieux, precisian, precisianist, precisionist, purist, ranter, religionist, religious hypocrite, ritualist, sacramentarian, sheep, sniveler, snuffler, spiritual humbug, square, teenybopper, temporizer, timepleaser, timeserver, trimmer, weathercock, whited sepulcher, yes-man

ROGET THESAURUS

formalist

Impiety

N impiety, sin, irreverence, profaneness, profanity, profanation, blasphemy, desecration, sacrilege, scoffing, hypocrisy, pietism, cant, pious fraud, lip devotion, lip service, lip reverence, misdevotion, formalism, austerity, sanctimony, sanctimoniousness, pharisaism, precisianism, sabbatism, sabbatarianism, odium theologicum, sacerdotalism, bigotry blue laws, hardening, backsliding, declension, perversion, reprobation, sinner, scoffer, blasphemer, sacrilegist, sabbath breaker, worldling, hypocrite, Tartufe, Mawworm, bigot, saint, Pharisee, sabbatarian, formalist, methodist, puritan, pietist, precisian, religionist, devotee, ranter, fanatic, juramentado, the wicked, the evil, the unjust, the reprobate, sons of men, sons of Belial, the wicked one, children of darkness, impious, irreligious, desecrating, profane, irreverent, sacrilegious, blasphemous, un-hallowed, un-sanctified, un-regenerate, hardened, perverted, reprobate, hypocritical, canting, pietistical, sanctimonious, unctuous, pharisaical, overrighteous, righteous over much, bigoted, fanatical, priest-ridden, under the mask of religion, under the cloak of religion, under the pretense of religion, under the form of religion, under the guise of religion, giovane santo diavolo vecchio.