figure
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈfɪɡə/
ipa: /ˈfɪɡjɚ/
ipa: /ˈfɪɡɚ/
rhymes: -ɪɡə(ɹ)
rhymes: -ɪɡjə(ɹ)
Forms: form: figures
form: figuring
form: figured
form: figured
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: glosses: To calculate, to solve a mathematical problem.
examples: text: I can’t figure if he’s telling the truth or lying.
glosses: To come to understand.
examples: text: 1. Gent. Thou art alwayes figuring diseases in me; but
thou art full of error, I am sound.
ref: c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Measure for Measure”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii]:
text: “I know you figure me for a leftneck fool, correct?”
ref: 2023, John B. Wright, Fire Scars:
glosses: To think, to assume, to suppose, to reckon.
examples: text: It figures that somebody like him would be upset about the situation.
glosses: To be reasonable or predictable.
examples: text: It is the transcontinental trains which figure most prominently in railway advertising. Both railways run two trains in each direction.
ref: 1959 November, J. N. Westwood, “The Railways of Canada”, in Trains Illustrated, page 554:
text: The exchange rate figures heavily in several other aspects of Venezuela's economy.
ref: 2005, Paul Beckerman, Andean Exchange-rate Regimes, 1994-2003:
glosses: To enter into; to be a part of.
examples: text: Although now to be met with in botanic gardens everywhere, there is a certain degree of interest attaching to the figure of it in B.M. 3,992 (1843), although that was by no means the first figure published, for Lambert, Sprengel, and Sir W. Hooker had previously figured it.
ref: 1884 August 16, X. Y. Z., “Brazilian or Maté Tea”, in The Gardeners’ Magazine, volume 27 (New Series), number 1,007, page 451:
glosses: To represent in a picture or drawing.
examples: text: If love, alas! be pain; the pain I bear, / No thought can figure, and no tongue declare.
ref: 1709, Matthew Prior, “Henry and Emma. […]”, in The Poetical Works of Matthew Prior […], volume I, London: […] W[illiam] Strahan, […], published 1779, →OCLC, page 245:
glosses: To represent by a figure, as to form or mould; to make an image of, either palpable or ideal; also, to fashion into a determinate form; to shape.
examples: text: The vaulty top of heaven / Figured quite o'er with burning meteors.
ref: c. 1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Iohn”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene ii]:
glosses: To embellish with design; to adorn with figures.
examples: 1698 , John Dryden, Epitaph of Mary Frampton
As through a crystal glass the figured hours are seen.
glosses: To indicate by numerals.
examples: text: whose white vestments figure innocence
ref: c. 1596–1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Fourth, […]. Epilogue.”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i]:
glosses: To represent by a metaphor; to signify or symbolize.
examples: text: His loftie browes in foldes, do figure death,
And in their ſmoothneſſe, amitie and life:
ref: c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire; London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act II, scene i:
text: In this the heaven figures some event.
ref: c. 1591–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Third Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]:
glosses: To prefigure; to foreshow.
topics: entertainment
lifestyle
music
glosses: To write over or under the bass, as figures or other characters, in order to indicate the accompanying chords.
topics: entertainment
lifestyle
music
glosses: To embellish.
Derived terms: defigure
figurable
figure on
figure out
go figure
misfigure
outfigure
prefigure
refigure
that figures