figure

A drawing or diagram conveying information.

Noun

  1. A drawing or diagram conveying information.
    • 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...
  2. The representation of any form, as by drawing, painting, modelling, carving, embroidering, etc.; especially, a representation of the human body.
    • a figure in bronze; a figure cut in marble
    • a coin that bears the figure of an angel - c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac...
    • 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. - 2007 December 5, Andy Salisbury, “Unleash the Beast”, in Nintendo Power,...
  3. A person or thing representing a certain consciousness.
    • 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...
  4. The appearance or impression made by the conduct or career of a person.
    • He cut a sorry figure standing there in the rain.
    • I made some figure there. - 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:
    • gentlemen of the best figure in the county - 1765–1769, William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England, (please specify |book=I to IV), Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] Clarendon Press, →OCLC:
  5. Distinguished appearance; magnificence; conspicuous representation; splendour; show.
    • that he may live in figure and indulgence - 1729, William Law, A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life:
  6. A human figure, which dress or corset must fit to; the shape of a human body.
    • 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. - 1919, B. G. Jefferis, J. L. Nichols,...
    • She was cunningly dressed in a black, sheer gown with gold ornaments showing her figure to perfection. - 1966, James Workman, The Mad Emperor, Melbourne, Sydney: Scripts, page 53:
  7. A numeral.
  8. A number, an amount.
    • (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...
  9. A shape.
    • a geometrical figure, a plane figure, a solid figure
    • Flowers have all exquisite figures. - 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...
    • 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. - 1908,...
  10. A visible pattern as in wood or cloth.
    • The muslin was of a pretty figure.
  11. Any complex dance moveᵂ.
    • 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. - 1897...
  12. A figure of speech.
    • to represent the imagination under the figure of a wing - 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),...

Origin

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.

Forms

figures

Related

figurine figurative figuratively

Derived

academy figure action figure all-figure number authority figure ball park figure ballpark figure big figure black figure bowling figures break figure Chladni figure Chladni's figure counterfigure cut a figure dark figure double figures eight figures father figure figurate figure 4 figure 9 figure away figure axis figure-caster

Verb

  1. To calculate, to solve a mathematical problem.
  2. To come to understand.
    • I can’t figure if he’s telling the truth or lying.
  3. To think, to assume, to suppose, to reckon.
    • 1. Gent. Thou art alwayes figuring diseases in me; but thou art full of error, I am sound. - c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Measure for Measure”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, &...
    • “I know you figure me for a leftneck fool, correct?” - 2023, John B. Wright, Fire Scars:
  4. To be reasonable or predictable.
    • It figures that somebody like him would be upset about the situation.
  5. To enter into; to be a part of.
    • It is the transcontinental trains which figure most prominently in railway advertising. Both railways run two trains in each direction. - 1959 November, J. N. Westwood, “The Railways of Canada”, in Trains Illustrated,...
    • The exchange rate figures heavily in several other aspects of Venezuela's economy. - 2005, Paul Beckerman, Andean Exchange-rate Regimes, 1994-2003:
  6. To represent in a picture or drawing.
    • 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,...
  7. 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.
    • If love, alas! be pain; the pain I bear, / No thought can figure, and no tongue declare. - 1709, Matthew Prior, “Henry and Emma. […]”, in The Poetical Works of Matthew Prior […], volume I, London: […] W[illiam] Strahan,...
  8. To embellish with design; to adorn with figures.
    • The vaulty top of heaven / Figured quite o'er with burning meteors. - c. 1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Iohn”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […]...
  9. To indicate by numerals.
    • 1698 , John Dryden, Epitaph of Mary Frampton As through a crystal glass the figured hours are seen.
  10. To represent by a metaphor; to signify or symbolize.
    • whose white vestments figure innocence - c. 1596–1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Fourth, […]. Epilogue.”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First...
  11. To prefigure; to foreshow.
    • His loftie browes in foldes, do figure death, And in their ſmoothneſſe, amitie and life: - c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London:...
    • In this the heaven figures some event. - c. 1591–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Third Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London:...
  12. To write over or under the bass, as figures or other characters, in order to indicate the accompanying chords.

Forms

figures figuring figured

Derived

defigure figurable figure on figure out go figure misfigure outfigure prefigure refigure that figures