Con*ven"tion*al (?), a. [L. conventionalis: cf. F. conventionnel.]

1.

Formed by agreement or compact; stipulated.

Conventional services reserved by tenures upon grants, made out of the crown or knights' service. Sir M. Hale.

2.

Growing out of, or depending on, custom or tacit agreement; sanctioned by general concurrence or usage; formal.

"Conventional decorum."

Whewell.

The conventional language appropriated to monarchs. Motley.

The ordinary salutations, and other points of social behavior, are conventional. Latham.

3. Fine Arts (a)

Based upon tradition, whether religious and historical or of artistic rules.

(b)

Abstracted; removed from close representation of nature by the deliberate selection of what is to be represented and what is to be rejected; as, a conventional flower; a conventional shell. Cf. Conventionalize, v. t.

 

© Webster 1913.