figure
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈfɪɡə/
ipa: /ˈfɪɡjɚ/
ipa: /ˈfɪɡɚ/
rhymes: -ɪɡə(ɹ)
rhymes: -ɪɡjə(ɹ)
Forms: form: figures
Etymology: From Middle English figure, borrowed from Old French figure, from Latin figūra (“form, shape, form of a word, a figure of speech, Late Latin a sketch, drawing”), from fingō (“to form, shape, mold, fashion”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰeyǵʰ- (“to mold, shape, form, knead”). Cognate with Ancient Greek τεῖχος (teîkhos), Sanskrit देग्धि (dégdhi), Old English dāg (“dough”). More at dough. Doublet of figura.
Senses: examples: text: For example, while Figure 1 shows information for 516 visitor groups, Figure 3 presents data for 1,625 individuals. A note above each graph or table specifies the information illustrated. ... For example, although Joshua Tree NP visitors returned 525 questionnaires, Figure 1 shows data for only 516 respondents.
ref: 2004, Joshua Tree National Park 2004 Visitor Study:
glosses: A drawing or diagram conveying information.
examples: text: a figure in bronze; a figure cut in marble
text: a coin that bears the figure of an angel
ref: c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene vii]:
text: Ever since I was a young’n and my dad gave me a Godzilla figure, I’ve been a huge fan of the big green lizard from the Land of the Rising Sun.
ref: 2007 December 24, Andy Salisbury, “Unleash the Beast”, in Nintendo Power, volume 222, page 34:
glosses: The representation of any form, as by drawing, painting, modelling, carving, embroidering, etc.; especially, a representation of the human body.
examples: text: Seeing the British establishment struggle with the financial sector is like watching an alcoholic […]. Until 2008 there was denial over what finance had become. When a series of bank failures made this impossible, there was widespread anger, leading to the public humiliation of symbolic figures.
ref: 2013 June 28, Joris Luyendijk, “Our banks are out of control”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 3, page 21:
glosses: A person or thing representing a certain consciousness.
examples: text: He cut a sorry figure standing there in the rain.
text: I made some figure there.
ref: 1697, Virgil, “(please specify the book number)”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:
text: gentlemen of the best figure in the county
ref: 1765–1769, William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England, (please specify |book=I to IV), Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] Clarendon Press, →OCLC:
glosses: The appearance or impression made by the conduct or career of a person.
examples: text: that he may live in figure and indulgence
ref: 1729, William Law, A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life:
glosses: Distinguished appearance; magnificence; conspicuous representation; splendour; show.
examples: text: The origin of the corset is lost in remote antiquity. The figures of the early Egyptian women show clearly an artificial shape of the waist produced by some style of corset.
ref: 1919, B. G. Jefferis, J. L. Nichols, Searchlights on Health:
text: She was cunningly dressed in a black, sheer gown with gold ornaments showing her figure to perfection.
ref: 1966, James Workman, The Mad Emperor, Melbourne, Sydney: Scripts, page 53:
glosses: A human figure, which dress or corset must fit to; the shape of a human body.
glosses: A numeral.
examples: text: (i) in the 1966 edition of The Destruction of Dresden Irving contended that 135,000 were estimated authoritatively to have been killed and further contended that the documentation suggested a figure between 100,00 and 250,000;
ref: 1996, David Irving v. Penguin Books and Deborah Lipstadt:
glosses: A number, an amount.
examples: text: a geometrical figure, a plane figure, a solid figure
text: Flowers have all exquisite figures.
ref: 1627 (indicated as 1626), Francis [Bacon], “(please specify the page, or |century=I to X)”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. […], London: […] William Rawley […]; [p]rinted by J[ohn] H[aviland] for William Lee […], →OCLC:
text: And these were not human shapes, or the shapes of anything I recognised as alive in the world, but outlines of fire that traced globes, triangles, crosses, and the luminous bodies of various geometrical figures.
ref: 1908, Algernon Blackwood, John Silence, Physician Extraordinary:
glosses: A shape.
examples: text: The muslin was of a pretty figure.
glosses: A visible pattern as in wood or cloth.
examples: text: Although the Celebrity was almost impervious to sarcasm, he was now beginning to exhibit visible signs of uneasiness,[…]. It was with a palpable relief that he heard the first warning notes of the figure.
ref: 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter V, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:
glosses: Any complex dance moveᵂ.
examples: text: to represent the imagination under the figure of a wing
ref: 1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter XX, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume (please specify |volume=I to V), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC:
glosses: A figure of speech.
topics: human-sciences
logic
mathematics
philosophy
sciences
glosses: The form of a syllogism with respect to the relative position of the middle term.
examples: text: its quality, like those of all the rest, is determined by its position in the house of the astrological figure
ref: 1889, Franz Hartmann, The Principles of Astrological Geomancy:
topics: astrology
human-sciences
mysticism
philosophy
sciences
glosses: A horoscope; the diagram of the aspects of the astrological houses.
examples: text: Here, Beethoven limits the syncopations and modifications of rhythm which are so prominent in the first and third movements, and employs a rapid, busy, and most melodious figure in the Violins, which is irresistible in its gay and brilliant effect[…]
ref: 1888, George Grove, Beethoven's Nine Symphonies: Analytical Essays:
topics: entertainment
lifestyle
music
glosses: Any short succession of notes, either as melody or as a group of chords, which produce a single complete and distinct impression.
topics: entertainment
lifestyle
music
glosses: A form of melody or accompaniment kept up through a strain or passage; a motif; a florid embellishment.
Derived terms: sense: derived from figure (noun)
word: academy figure
sense: derived from figure (noun)
word: action figure
sense: derived from figure (noun)
word: all-figure number
sense: derived from figure (noun)
word: authority figure
sense: derived from figure (noun)
word: ball park figure
sense: derived from figure (noun)
word: ballpark figure
sense: derived from figure (noun)
word: big figure
sense: derived from figure (noun)
word: black figure
sense: derived from figure (noun)
word: bowling figures
sense: derived from figure (noun)
word: break figure
sense: derived from figure (noun)
word: Chladni figure
sense: derived from figure (noun)
word: counterfigure
sense: derived from figure (noun)
word: cut a figure
sense: derived from figure (noun)
word: dark figure
sense: derived from figure (noun)
word: double figures
sense: derived from figure (noun)
word: eight figures
sense: derived from figure (noun)
word: father figure
sense: derived from figure (noun)
word: figurate
sense: derived from figure (noun)
word: figure 4
sense: derived from figure (noun)
word: figure 9
sense: derived from figure (noun)
word: figure away
sense: derived from figure (noun)
word: figure axis
sense: derived from figure (noun)
word: figure-caster
sense: derived from figure (noun)
word: figure dash
sense: derived from figure (noun)
word: figure eight
sense: derived from figure (noun)
word: figure-eight
sense: derived from figure (noun)
word: figure-eight hitch
sense: derived from figure (noun)
word: figure four
sense: derived from figure (noun)
word: figure-head
sense: derived from figure (noun)
word: figurehead
sense: derived from figure (noun)
word: figure-hugging
sense: derived from figure (noun)
word: figureless
sense: derived from figure (noun)
word: figure loom
sense: derived from figure (noun)
word: figure of eight
sense: derived from figure (noun)
word: figure-of-eight
sense: derived from figure (noun)
word: figure of fun
sense: derived from figure (noun)
word: figure of merit
sense: derived from figure (noun)
word: figure of speech
sense: derived from figure (noun)
word: figure-outable
sense: derived from figure (noun)
word: figure poem
sense: derived from figure (noun)
word: figure skate
sense: derived from figure (noun)
word: figure skater
sense: derived from figure (noun)
word: figure skating
sense: derived from figure (noun)
word: figuresome
sense: derived from figure (noun)
word: figure space
sense: derived from figure (noun)
word: figure up
sense: derived from figure (noun)
word: figure weaving
sense: derived from figure (noun)
word: figurework
sense: derived from figure (noun)
word: figurial
sense: derived from figure (noun)
word: figurism
sense: derived from figure (noun)
word: figurist
sense: derived from figure (noun)
word: figurize
sense: derived from figure (noun)
word: figury
sense: derived from figure (noun)
word: five figures
sense: derived from figure (noun)
word: four-figure
sense: derived from figure (noun)
word: four figures
sense: derived from figure (noun)
word: hate figure
sense: derived from figure (noun)
word: hourglass figure
sense: derived from figure (noun)
word: lay figure
sense: derived from figure (noun)
word: Lichtenberg figure
sense: derived from figure (noun)
word: Lissajous figure
sense: derived from figure (noun)
word: long figure
sense: derived from figure (noun)
word: miner's figure
sense: derived from figure (noun)
word: minifigure
sense: derived from figure (noun)
word: mother figure
sense: derived from figure (noun)
word: multifigure
sense: derived from figure (noun)
word: musical figure
sense: derived from figure (noun)
word: nine figures
sense: derived from figure (noun)
word: plane figure
sense: derived from figure (noun)
word: public figure
sense: derived from figure (noun)
word: Purkinje figure
sense: derived from figure (noun)
word: Purkinje's figure
sense: derived from figure (noun)
word: red figure
sense: derived from figure (noun)
word: rubbery figures
sense: derived from figure (noun)
word: semifigure
sense: derived from figure (noun)
word: seven figures
sense: derived from figure (noun)
word: significant figure
sense: derived from figure (noun)
word: single-figure
sense: derived from figure (noun)
word: six-figure
sense: derived from figure (noun)
word: six figures
sense: derived from figure (noun)
word: snow figure
sense: derived from figure (noun)
word: stick figure
sense: derived from figure (noun)
word: subfigure
sense: derived from figure (noun)
word: terminal figure
sense: derived from figure (noun)
word: text figure
sense: derived from figure (noun)
word: three-figure
sense: derived from figure (noun)
word: three figures
sense: derived from figure (noun)
word: two-figure
sense: derived from figure (noun)
word: vertex figure
sense: derived from figure (noun)
word: Widmanstaetten figure
sense: derived from figure (noun)
word: Widmanstätten figure
Related terms: figurine
figurative
figuratively