figurative 
Which thing made the grauc indues Areopagites (as I 
find written) to forbid all manner of ti<iurt:u>' spe;u In > 
to be vsed before them in their conBUtorie of Justice. 
J'uttenlitt in, Arte of Eng. Poesie, p. 128. 
Nor are his [Burke's] jiurel.v fiijuratitf passages tlie fin- 
est even as figured writing; he is best when the metaphor 
is subdued. Brovflum, Burke. 
4. In MiM.viV, same taflgurate, 3. 
figuratively (fig'u-m-tiv-li), mlr. In a figura- 
tive manner; by means of a figure or resem- 
blance ; metaphorically or tropically. 
For tlu>3 men sogt al sectes of sustren and of bretheren. 
And thow fynde hyin, bote fayratijtiehe a ferly me think- 
eth. Piers JfvMMM (I 1 ), xvii. 294. 
These words can only be understood ^urotiMfy of re- 
ceiving him by faith. 
Hf. llitrnet, Hist. Reformation, an. 1594. 
Though a nation has often been figui-atirelii drowned in 
tears on the death of a great man, yet it is ten to one if 
an individual tear has been shed on the occasion, except- 
ing from the forlorn pen of some hungry author. 
Irving, Knickerbocker, p. 266. 
figurativeness (fig'u-ra-tiv-nes), . The state 
or quality of being figurative : as, figurativeness 
of expression. 
figure (fig'ur), n. [< ME. figure, figour, fygur, 
form, shape, image, a figure in arithmetic and 
geometry, < OF. figure, F. figure = Pr. Sp. Pg. 
It. figura = D. figuiir = G. Dan. Sw. figur, < L. 
figura, a form, shape, form of a word, a figure 
of speech, LL. a sketch, drawing, < fingere 
(V *fiff)> form, shape, mold, fashion : see feign, 
fictile, fiction, figment, etc.] 1. A line, or a col- 
lection of connected straight or curved lines 
or surfaces, having a definite shape; specifi- 
cally, in geom., any combination of lines, sur- 
faces, or solids formed under given conditions. 
Chauuenet. 
Your last proportion is that of figure, so called for that 
it yelds an ocular representation, your meeters being by 
good symmetric reduced into certaiue Geometricall fig- 
ure*. Pultenham, Arte of Eng. Poesie, p. 75. 
And sketching with her slender pointed foot 
Some figure like a wizard's pentagram 
On garden gravel. Tennyson, The Brook. 
2. In general, the visible or tangible form of 
anything; the shape of the outline or exterior 
surface ; form ; shape ; fashion : as, a beautiful 
female figure ; the grotesque figure of a satyr; 
the figure of the earth. 
Doing, in the figure of a lamb, the feats of a Hon. 
Shak., Much Ado, L 1. 
Observing how the extremities [of sensible bodies! ter- 
minate either in straight Hues which meet at discernible 
angles, or in crooked lines wherein no angles can be per- 
ceived, by considering these as they relate to one another, 
in all parts of the extremities of any body or space, it [the 
eye] has that idea we call figure. 
Locke, Human Understanding, II. xiii. 5. 
A good figure, or person, in man or woman, gives credit 
at first sight to the choice of either. 
Richardson, Clarissa Harlowe. 
Hence 3. Abody; a visible object or shape ; 
especially, a human form as a whole ; a person 
regarded simply as a body ; an appearance rep- 
resenting a body. 
Well may it sort that this portentous figure 
Conies armed through our watch. 
Shak., Hamlet, i. 1. 
Behold that figure, neat, though plainly clad ; 
His sprightly mingled with a shade of sad. 
Cowper, Tirocinium, 1. 664. 
But lo ! a frowning figure veils the Cross, 
And hides the blest Redeemer ! 
With stem right hand it stretches forth a scroll. 
Hood, Romance of Cologne. 
4. The artificial representation of a form, as 
in sculpture, drawing or painting, embroidery, 
etc.; especially, the human body represented 
by art of any kind. 
A coin that bears the figure of an angel 
Stamped in gold. Shak., M. of V., ii. 7. 
His mantle hairy, and his bonnet sedge, 
Inwrought with figures dim. 
Milton, Lycidas, 1. 105. 
A vacant chair . . . 
Carveu with strange figures. 
Tennyson, Holy Grail. 
5. A cut or diagram inserted in printed text, 
or one of a number of representations on the 
same plate. Abbreviated^. 6. A personage 
or personality ; a character; especially, a per- 
son of standing or consideration: as, he is a 
figure, or a conspicuous figure, in the society 
of the place. 
Figures [persons] of the Past. 
Josiah Quincy (title of book). 
7. Appearance or manifestation; show; dis- 
play; standing; position: used of the compara- 
tive prominence, consideration, or estimation 
of a person or thing, and in an absolute sense 
to signify marked prominence, importance, or 
distinction. 
139 
ii209 
From Dauier in two hours we came to another River, 
of no inconsiderable figure, but nut once mentioned by 
any Geographer that I know of. 
Mint tnl fi'll, Aleppo to .Jerusalem, p. 44. 
To the world no bugbear is so great 
As want of figure, and a small estate. 
Pope, Imit. of Horace, I. i. 67. 
I have taken more than ordinary Care not to give Offence 
to those who appear in the higher Figures of Life. 
Addition, Spectator, No. 262. 
It is my wish, while yet I live, to have my boy make 
some figure in the world. Sheridan, The Rivals, ii. 1. 
8*. Outward manifestation ; the state of being 
set out in regular order. 
Speech is like cloth of Arras, opened and put abroad, 
whereby the imagery doth appear in figure ; whereas in 
thoughts they lie but as in packs. Bacon. 
9. In logic, the form of a syllogism with respect 
to the relative position of the middle term, in 
the second figure the middle term is predicate of both 
premises ; in the third figure it is the subject of both. 
Some logicians admit only three figures, and they define 
the first figure as having the middle term the subject of 
one premise and the predicate of the other. Other logi- 
cians admit four figures, and define the first as having the 
middle term the subject of that premise which contains 
the predicate of the conclusion, and the predicate of the 
other premise ; while the fourth figure has the middle 
term the subject of that premise which contains the sub- 
ject of the conclusion, and the predicate of the other. 
10. In astrol., a diagram which represents the 
heavens at any time; a scheme; a horoscope; 
also, a diagram used in the practice of geo- 
mancy. 
She works by charms, by spells, by the figure, and such 
daubery as this is, beyond our element. 
Shak., M. W. of W.,iv. 2. 
He set a figure to discover 
If you were fled to Rye or Dover. 
S. Butler, Hudibras, III. i. 455. 
11. A movement of a dance ; one of the regular 
divisions of a dance, comprising a special set 
of evolutions, and separated from the next 
movement by a slight pause. 
He did not announce the name of the dance, . . . the 
officers teaching the English girls the figure. 
E. K. Hale, Man Without a Country. 
12. In music: (a) A short theme or motive 
having a distinct rhythmic, melodic, or har- 
monic individuality, which is often the germ 
of extended movements ; usually, the shortest 
complete idea or form into which a phrase can 
be divided without being reduced to separate 
tones. (6) A numeral subjoined to a written 
bass to indicate briefly the nature of the un- 
written harmony. See figured bass, under bass 3 . 
13. Any significant written or printed char- 
acter other than a letter ; specifically, an arith- 
metical character, especially one of the Arabic 
figures, the nine digits and the cipher : some- 
times used of a digit, as distinguished from a 
cipher : as, a full figure. 
The tale of an hondred . . . betokneth ane rounde fig- 
ure, thet is the uayreste amang alle the othre figures : vor 
ase in the rounde figure the ende went ayen to his gin- 
ninge, . . . alzuo the tale of an hondred joyueth than 
ende to the ginniuge. 
Ayenbiie of Immjt (E. E. T. S.), p. 234. 
A crooked figure may 
Attest, in little place a million. 
Shak., Hen. V., i. (cho.). 
You see the use of the cipher (for so the figure is pe- 
culiarly named, although it be generally called and ac- 
compted as a. figure). T. Hill, Arithmetic (1600), fol. 5. 
14. Value, as expressed in numbers ; price : 
as, the goods were sold at a high figure. 
Accommodating a youngster, who had just entered the 
regiment, with a glandered charger at an uncommonly 
stiff figure. Thackeray, Book of Snobs, x. 
15. A mystical type ; an antecedent symbol or 
emblem; that which prefigures or represents 
a coming reality. 
There went Pagentis of ye olde lawe and the newe, joyn- 
ynge togyther the fygures of the blessyd sacrament in 
suche noumbre and soo apt and conuenyent for that 
feeste yt it wolde make any man joyous to se it. 
Sir R. Ouylforde, Pylgrymage, p. 8. 
The Flees [fleece] of Edome with dewe delectable 
Was of Marya &fygure fulle notabulle. 
Political Poems, etc. (ed. Furnivall), p. 17. 
This was the sweuen whiche he had, 
That Daniell anone arad, 
And said hym, th&t figure strange 
Betokeneth hoWthe world shall change. 
Gower, Conf. Amant. , Prol. 
Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam to Moses, even 
over them that had not sinned after the similitude of 
Adam's transgression, who is the figure of him that was to 
come. Rom. v. 14. 
16. In rliet., a peculiar or special use of words ; 
employment of words in forms, combinations, 
or meanings different from those properly or 
ordinarily assigned to them; use of certain 
forms of speech to produce a special effect. An 
unintentional, unauthorized, or unjustifiable deviation 
figure 
from grammatical usage is not a figure, but a solecism. 
The names of most of the figures of rhetoric are inherited 
from tile terms used by the ancient Greek and Konian 
^rannnarians ami rhetoricians. Also called figut'i- of 
tpteeh. 
/'/;/ it selfe is a certaiue Huely or good grace set 
vpon wordes, speaches, and sentences, to some purpose 
ami not in vaine, giuing them ornament or efficacie by 
many maner of alterations in shape, in Bonnde, and also 
in sence. Pttttenham, Arte of Eng. Poesie, p. 133. 
And these things, brethren, I have in & figure transferred 
to myself and to Apollos for your sakes. 1 Cor. iv. 6. 
There motley images her fancy strike, 
l-'i'jtti'cs ill-pair'd, and similes unlike. 
Pope, Dunciad, i. B6. 
The most illiterate speak in figures as often as the most 
learned. H. Blair, Rhetoric, xiv. 
And now, I think, you shall hear some better language : 
I was obliged to be plain and intelligible in the first 
scene, because there was so much matter of fact in it ; 
but now, i' faith, you have trope, figure, and metaphor, as 
plenty as noun-substantives. Sheridan, The Critic, ii. 2. 
17. An image; a fancy; a product of the ima- 
gination. 
If it be but to scrape the figures out of your husband's 
brains. Shak., M. W. of W., iv. 2. 
Where beams of warm imagination play, 
The memory's suit figure* fade away. 
Pope, Essay on Criticism, 1. 59. 
Academy figure. See academy. Aerial figures, ap- 
parent figure, Arabic figures. See the adjectives. 
Center of figure. SeecerUeri. Chladni's figures. See 
iwdal. Cohesion figures. See cohesion. Congruent 
figures, figures callable of superposition. Correlative 
figures, cubical figure, etc. See the adjectives. Ele- 
ment of a figure. See element. Erjorjtlc figures. See 
idiophanous. Etching- figure, a minute figure developed 
upon a crystalline surface ny the action of an appropriate 
solvent. Such figures are commonly depressions, often 
of sharp geometrical form, and by their symmetry reveal 
the molecular structure of the solid. Thus, the etching- 
figures produced on the pyramidal faces of a quartz crys- 
tal by the action of hydrofluoric acid show the trapezo- 
hedral character of the form, and serve to distinguish 
between the plus and minus rhombohedral planes when 
not to be recognized geometrically. Fallacy Of figure 
Of speech. See fallacy. Figure Of a COnlC, the rec- 
tangle contained by the latus rectum and latus trans- 
versum. One fourth of this is the area which, according 
as it overlaps or falls short by the square of the ordinate, 
gives a name to the hyperbola and ellipse. Figure 01 
diminution, in musical notation, & figure inclosed in a 
curve, and added to a small group of notes to indicate that 
they are to be performed in a rhythm contrary to that of 
the composition as a whole, as the figures indicating 
triplets, sextolets, etc. Figure Of eight. See eight*. 
Flgure-Of-fOUT trap, a trap for catching wild animals, 
the trigger of which is set in the shape of the figure 4. A 
weighted board or box, with one end on the ground, is held 
up at the other end by three sticks suitably notched and 
put together so that the whole structure falls when the 
bait is disturbed. Figure Of fun, a person presenting 
an absurd comical appearance. [Colloq.] 
"Is that figure of fun old Marchaiit? " I turned and 
saw a stout ball of a body rolling in, among the barely 
suppressed merriment of some men near the door. 
Harper's Hag., XXXVII. 535. 
Figure of health, the Pythagorean pentagram or regu- 
lar stellar pentagon. Figure Of speech. See def. 16. 
Figure of the earth. See earth* . Figure of the gold- 
en rule. see fc. Figure of the rule of false. See 
rule. Figures Of Lissajous, brilliant lines formed by 
the persistence of impressions upon the eye, and occa- 
sioned by reflections from the ends of two vibrating tun- 
ing-forks placed at right angles to each other. Generat- 
ing figure. See generate. Purkinje's figures, the fig- 
ures of the blood-vessels of the retina made visible to the 
eye itself by throwing a bright oblique light into the vitre- 
ous chamber of the eye, either obliquely through the pu- 
pil or by means of a lens through the anterior part of the 
sclerotic, and moving the light to and fro. To cut or 
make a figure, see cut. Togo the whole figure. See 
go. Widmannstattlan figures, structural lines which 
appear upon the polished section of meteoric iron after it 
has been etched with an acid. See meteorite. =Syn. Form, 
Conformation, Figure, Shape, Fashion. Form is the gen- 
eral word ; and its use in ordinary speech has been much 
influenced by its metaphysical meaning, so that it is the 
least geometrical of these words. When form refers to the 
outward, it generally suggests the substance of the person 
or thing whose form it is ; form may also be used in op- 
position to spirit or substance: as, "a/orw of godliness," 
2 Tim. iii. 5. Conformation is the result of the arrange- 
ment of the parts of a whole, and the word suggests the 
proportion and relation of the parts, internal or external, 
to each other. Figure, shape, and fashion are external ; 
the first is often, and the others are generally, the result of 
art. Figure has a wide range of meaning, from mere out- 
line to pictorial or fictile representation. Shape has almost 
as much freedom of use ; yet, having been little used as a 
learned term, it is more literally geometrical, and at the 
same time more loosely employed. Fashion in the sense 
of form is obsolescent. 
figure (fig'ur), v. ; pret. and pp. figured, ppr. 
figuring. [< ME. figuren(=V. figureren = G. 
figuriren = Dan. figurere = Sw.figurera), < OF. 
figurer, F. figurer = Pr. Sp. Pg. figurar = It. 
figurare, < L. figurare, form, shape, fashion, 
represent, imagine, etc., (.figura, a form, shape, 
figure: see figure, .] I. trans. 1. To make 
a figure, image, likeness, or picture of ; repre- 
sent artificially in any way : as, to figure a plant, 
shell, etc. 
If they had any gratitude, they would erect a statue to 
him ; they would figure him as a presiding Mercury, the 
god of traffic and fiction. >7i.vi'rf<m, The Critic, i. 2. 
