ceremonious

adj

1. According to the required or usual ceremonies, formalities, or rituals; specifically (Christianity, obsolete), to ceremonial laws in the Bible.

   “[L]et vs take a ceremonious leaue, / And louing farevvell of our ſeuerall friends.”

   “VVhen vve deſcribe our ſenſations of another's ſorrovvs, either in friendly or ceremonious condolence, the cuſtoms of the vvorld ſcarcely admit of rigid veracity.”

   “Bingley, she had likewise seen for an instant, and in that short period saw him looking both pleased and embarrassed. He was received by Mrs. Bennet with a degree of civility, which made her two daughters ashamed, especially when contrasted with the cold and ceremonious politeness of her curtsey and address to his friend.”

2. Involving much ceremony; ostentatious, showy.

   “O, the Sacrifice, / Hovv ceremonious, ſolemne, and vn-earthly / It vvas i'th' Offring?”

   “This is the day, when, in a foreign grave, / King Owen [Owain Gwynedd]'s relics shall be laid to rest. / […] / No mitred abbots, and no tonsured train, / Lengthened the pomp of ceremonious woe.”

   “He descended to the cabin to bid a ceremonious, and, it may be, tacitly rebukeful adieu.”

3. Of a person: fond of ceremony or ritual, or of observing strict etiquette or formality; punctilious.

   “[S]ome VVriters do almoſt nothing contrary to yͤ cuſtome, and ſome by vertue of that Priuiledge, dare doe any thing. I am neither of that firſt order, nor of this laſt. The one is too fondly-ceremonious, the other too impudently audacious. I vvalke in the midſt (ſo vvell as I can) betvveene both.”

   “His onely delight is building, he ſpends himſelfe to get curious intricate models and plots, another is vvholly ceremonious about titles, degrees, inſcriptions.”

   “Ancient and oriental cultures are in many ways more conventional, more ceremonious, and more courteous than our own.”

4. Synonym of ceremonial (“of, relating to, consisting of, or used in a ceremony or rite”); formal, ritual.

   “They [gentiles] may alſo theſiyer [the easier] bee allured to the Chriſtian fayth, for that it is more agreable to the lawe of nature then eyther the cerimonious lawe of Moiſes, or portentous fables of Mahometes Alcharon.”

   “The other Princes vvere reſerued to a more opportune maſſacre, vntil Sultan Currovvn had entred Agra, and receiued the Imperial Crovvne and Scepter, vvith other Ceremonious rites due to the Coronation, of the Great Moguls.”