Etimology
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 (degdhi), Old English dāg (“dough”). More at dough. Doublet of figura.
noun
figure (plural figures)
A drawing or diagram conveying information.
The representation of any form, as by drawing, painting, modelling, carving, embroidering, etc.; especially, a representation of the human body.
A person or thing representing a certain consciousness.
The appearance or impression made by the conduct or career of a person.
(obsolete) Distinguished appearance; magnificence; conspicuous representation; splendour; show.
A human figure, which dress or corset must fit to; the shape of a human body.
A numeral.
A number, an amount.
A shape.
A visible pattern as in wood or cloth.
Any complex dance moveW.
A figure of speech.
(logic) The form of a syllogism with respect to the relative position of the middle term.
(astrology) A horoscope; the diagram of the aspects of the astrological houses.
(music) Any short succession of notes, either as melody or as a group of chords, which produce a single complete and distinct impression.
(music) A form of melody or accompaniment kept up through a strain or passage; a motif; a florid embellishment.
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.
a figure in bronze; a figure cut in marble
a coin that bears the figure of an angel
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.
He cut a sorry figure standing there in the rain.
I made some figure there.
gentlemen of the best figure in the county
that he may live in figure and indulgence
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.
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;
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 muslin was of a pretty figure.
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.
to represent the imagination under the figure of a wing
its quality, like those of all the rest, is determined by its position in the house of the astrological figure
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 […]
Related words
related terms
figurine
figurative
figuratively
verb
figure (third-person singular simple present figures, present participle figuring, simple past and past participle figured)
(chiefly US) To calculate, to solve a mathematical problem.
(chiefly US) To come to understand.
To think, to assume, to suppose, to reckon.
(chiefly US, intransitive) To be reasonable or predictable.
(intransitive) To enter into; to be a part of.
(transitive) To represent in a picture or drawing.
(obsolete) 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.
To embellish with design; to adorn with figures.
(obsolete) To indicate by numerals.
To represent by a metaphor; to signify or symbolize.
(obsolete) To prefigure; to foreshow.
(music) To write over or under the bass, as figures or other characters, in order to indicate the accompanying chords.
(music) To embellish.
Examples
I can’t figure if he’s telling the truth or lying.
1. Gent. Thou art alwayes figuring diseases in me; butthou art full of error, I am sound.
“I know you figure me for a leftneck fool, correct?”
It figures that somebody like him would be upset about the situation.
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.
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 , although that was by no means the first figure published, for Lambert, Sprengel, and Sir W. Hooker had previously figured it.
If love, alas! be pain; the pain I bear, / No thought can figure, and no tongue declare.
The vaulty top of heaven / Figured quite o'er with burning meteors.
As through a crystal glass the figured hours are seen.
whose white vestments figure innocence
His loftie browes in foldes, do figure death,And in their ſmoothneſſe, amitie and life:
In this the heaven figures some event.