figure
Part of speech: noun
verb
Morphological type: simple
Topics: astrology
entertainment
human-sciences
lifestyle
logic
mathematics
music
mysticism
philosophy
sciences
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.
Inflected forms:
form: figures
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: figures
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: figuring
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: figured
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: figured
pos: verb
tags: past
Senses:
gloss: A drawing or diagram conveying information.
pos: noun
examples: 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.
gloss: The representation of any form, as by drawing, painting, modelling, carving, embroidering, etc.; especially, a representation of the human body.
pos: noun
examples: a figure in bronze; a figure cut in marble
a coin that bears the figure of an angel
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.
gloss: A person or thing representing a certain consciousness.
pos: noun
examples: 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.
gloss: The appearance or impression made by the conduct or career of a person.
pos: noun
examples: He cut a sorry figure standing there in the rain.
I made some figure there.
gentlemen of the best figure in the county
gloss: Distinguished appearance; magnificence; conspicuous representation; splendour; show.
pos: noun
tags: obsolete
examples: that he may live in figure and indulgence
gloss: A human figure, which dress or corset must fit to; the shape of a human body.
pos: noun
examples: 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.
She was cunningly dressed in a black, sheer gown with gold ornaments showing her figure to perfection.
gloss: A numeral.
pos: noun
gloss: A number, an amount.
pos: noun
examples: (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;
gloss: A shape.
pos: noun
examples: a geometrical figure, a plane figure, a solid figure
Flowers have all exquisite figures.
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.
The arc of a circle may be very little, but, given that, it is possible to construct the entire figure.
gloss: A visible pattern as in wood or cloth.
pos: noun
examples: The muslin was of a pretty figure.
gloss: Any complex dance moveᵂ.
pos: noun
examples: 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.
gloss: A figure of speech.
pos: noun
examples: to represent the imagination under the figure of a wing
gloss: The form of a syllogism with respect to the relative position of the middle term.
pos: noun
gloss: A horoscope; the diagram of the aspects of the astrological houses.
pos: noun
examples: its quality, like those of all the rest, is determined by its position in the house of the astrological figure
gloss: Any short succession of notes, either as melody or as a group of chords, which produce a single complete and distinct impression.
pos: noun
examples: 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[…]
gloss: A form of melody or accompaniment kept up through a strain or passage; a motif; a florid embellishment.
pos: noun
gloss: To calculate, to solve a mathematical problem.
pos: verb
tags: US
gloss: To come to understand.
pos: verb
tags: US
examples: I can’t figure if he’s telling the truth or lying.
gloss: To think, to assume, to suppose, to reckon.
pos: verb
examples: 1. Gent. Thou art alwayes figuring diseases in me; but
thou art full of error, I am sound.
“I know you figure me for a leftneck fool, correct?”
gloss: To be reasonable or predictable.
pos: verb
tags: US
intransitive
examples: It figures that somebody like him would be upset about the situation.
gloss: To enter into; to be a part of.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: It is the transcontinental trains which figure most prominently in railway advertising. Both railways run two trains in each direction.
The exchange rate figures heavily in several other aspects of Venezuela's economy.
gloss: To represent in a picture or drawing.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: 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.
gloss: 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.
pos: verb
tags: obsolete
examples: If love, alas! be pain; the pain I bear, / No thought can figure, and no tongue declare.
gloss: To embellish with design; to adorn with figures.
pos: verb
examples: The vaulty top of heaven / Figured quite o'er with burning meteors.
gloss: To indicate by numerals.
pos: verb
tags: obsolete
examples: 1698 , John Dryden, Epitaph of Mary Frampton
As through a crystal glass the figured hours are seen.
gloss: To represent by a metaphor; to signify or symbolize.
pos: verb
examples: whose white vestments figure innocence
gloss: To prefigure; to foreshow.
pos: verb
tags: obsolete
examples: His loftie browes in foldes, do figure death,
And in their ſmoothneſſe, amitie and life:
In this the heaven figures some event.
gloss: To write over or under the bass, as figures or other characters, in order to indicate the accompanying chords.
pos: verb
gloss: To embellish.
pos: verb
Related words: figurine
figurative
figuratively
Derived words: defigure
figurable
figure on
figure out
go figure
misfigure
outfigure
prefigure
refigure
that figures
Translations:
lang: Albanian
word: figurë
lang: Bulgarian
word: фигу́ра
roman: figúra
lang: Catalan
word: figura
lang: Czech
word: obrázek
lang: Czech
word: ilustrace
lang: Danish
word: figur
lang: Dutch
word: afbeelding
lang: Dutch
word: figuur
lang: Finnish
word: kuva
lang: Finnish
word: kuvio
lang: French
word: figure
lang: Galician
word: figura
lang: German
word: Abbildung
lang: Hebrew
word: שרטוט
roman: sirtút
lang: Hungarian
word: ábra
lang: Irish
word: deilbh
lang: Irish
word: amhlachas
lang: Italian
word: figura
lang: Latin
word: figūra
lang: Latvian
word: attēls
lang: Persian
word: دیسه
roman: dise
lang: Persian
word: صورت
roman: surat
lang: Persian
word: تصویر
roman: tasvir
lang: Persian
word: شکل
roman: šekl
lang: Polish
word: rysunek
lang: Portuguese
word: figura
lang: Romanian
word: figură
lang: Russian
word: рису́нок
roman: risúnok
lang: Slovak
word: obrázok
lang: Slovak
word: ilustrácia
lang: Spanish
word: figura
lang: Swedish
word: figur
lang: Turkish
word: şekil
lang: Ottoman Turkish
word: شكل
roman: şekl, şekil
lang: Ottoman Turkish
word: رسم
roman: resm, resim
lang: Vietnamese
word: [bức] hình
lang: Vietnamese
word: [bức] ảnh
lang: Vietnamese
word: hình vẽ