from
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Figure \Fig"ure\ (f[i^]g"[-u]r; 135), n. [F., figure, L. figura;
akin to fingere to form, shape, feign. See {Feign}.]
1. The form of anything; shape; outline; appearance.
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Flowers have all exquisite figures. --Bacon.
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2. The representation of any form, as by drawing, painting,
modeling, carving, embroidering, etc.; especially, a
representation of the human body; as, a figure in bronze;
a figure cut in marble.
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A coin that bears the figure of an angel. --Shak.
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3. A pattern in cloth, paper, or other manufactured article;
a design wrought out in a fabric; as, the muslin was of a
pretty figure.
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4. (Geom.) A diagram or drawing, made to represent a
magnitude or the relation of two or more magnitudes; a
surface or space inclosed on all sides; -- called
superficial when inclosed by lines, and solid when
inclosed by surfaces; any arrangement made up of points,
lines, angles, surfaces, etc.
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5. The appearance or impression made by the conduct or career
of a person; as, a sorry figure.
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I made some figure there. --Dryden.
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Gentlemen of the best figure in the county.
--Blackstone.
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6. Distinguished appearance; magnificence; conspicuous
representation; splendor; show.
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That he may live in figure and indulgence. --Law.
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7. A character or symbol representing a number; a numeral; a
digit; as, 1, 2,3, etc.
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8. Value, as expressed in numbers; price; as, the goods are
estimated or sold at a low figure. [Colloq.]
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With nineteen thousand a year at the very lowest
figure. --Thackeray.
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9. A person, thing, or action, conceived of as analogous to
another person, thing, or action, of which it thus becomes
a type or representative.
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Who is the figure of Him that was to come. --Rom. v.
14.
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10. (Rhet.) A mode of expressing abstract or immaterial ideas
by words which suggest pictures or images from the
physical world; pictorial language; a trope; hence, any
deviation from the plainest form of statement. Also
called a {figure of speech}.
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To represent the imagination under the figure of a
wing. --Macaulay.
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11. (Logic) The form of a syllogism with respect to the
relative position of the middle term.
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12. (Dancing) Any one of the several regular steps or
movements made by a dancer.
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13. (Astrol.) A horoscope; the diagram of the aspects of the
astrological houses. --Johnson.
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14. (Music)
(a) Any short succession of notes, either as melody or as
a group of chords, which produce a single complete
and distinct impression. --Grove.
(b) A form of melody or accompaniment kept up through a
strain or passage; a musical phrase or motive; a
florid embellishment.
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Note: Figures are often written upon the staff in music to
denote the kind of measure. They are usually in the
form of a fraction, the upper figure showing how many
notes of the kind indicated by the lower are contained
in one measure or bar. Thus, 2/4 signifies that the
measure contains two quarter notes. The following are
the principal figures used for this purpose: --
2/22/42/8 4/22/44/8 3/23/43/8 6/46/46/8
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{Academy figure}, {Canceled figures}, {Lay figure}, etc. See
under {Academy}, {Cancel}, {Lay}, etc.
{Figure caster}, or {Figure flinger}, an astrologer. "This
figure caster." --Milton.
{Figure flinging}, the practice of astrology.
{Figure-of-eight knot}, a knot shaped like the figure 8. See
Illust. under {Knot}.
{Figure painting}, a picture of the human figure, or the act
or art of depicting the human figure.
{Figure stone} (Min.), agalmatolite.
{Figure weaving}, the art or process of weaving figured
fabrics.
{To cut a figure}, to make a display. [Colloq.] --Sir W.
Scott.
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from
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0
72 Moby Thesaurus words for "figure of speech":
adornment, alliteration, allusion, anacoluthon, anadiplosis,
analogy, anaphora, anastrophe, antiphrasis, antithesis,
antonomasia, apophasis, aporia, aposiopesis, apostrophe, beauties,
catachresis, chiasmus, circumlocution, climax, colors,
colors of rhetoric, conversion, ecphonesis, elegant variation,
embellishment, embroidery, emphasis, exclamation, figure,
fine writing, floridity, floridness, flourish, floweriness,
flowers of speech, frill, gemination, hypallage, hyperbaton,
hyperbole, inversion, irony, litotes, lushness, luxuriance,
malapropism, meiosis, metaphor, metonymy, onomatopoeia, ornament,
ornamentation, oxymoron, paregmenon, parenthesis, periphrasis,
personification, pleonasm, preterition, prolepsis, purple patches,
regression, repetition, sarcasm, simile, similitude, spoonerism,
syllepsis, symploce, synecdoche, zeugma