[ad. L. figūrāt-us, pa. pple. of figūrāre to form, fashion, f. figūra FIGURE.]
A. ppl. a.
† 1. Framed according to, or exemplifying, ‘figures’ of grammar or rhetoric. Obs.
1530. Palsgr., 394. Auoyr course, in Johan le Mayre, for auoyr courrouse, and many suche be figurate by syncopa.
1669. Milton, Accedence Grammar, Wks. 1738, I. 607. Of figurate Construction, what is useful, is digested into several Rules of Syntaxis.
1674. Petty, Disc. Dupl. Proportion, Ded. A v. For, Falsity, Disproportion, and Inconsistence cannot be rectified by any sermocinations, though made all of figurate and measured periods, pronounced in Tune and Cadence, through the most advantageous organs; much less by Grandisonous or Euphonical Nonsence, farded with formality; no more than vicious Wines can be remedied with Brandy and Honey, or ill Cookery with enormous proportions of Spice and Sugar.
† b. = FIGURATIVE 4. Obs.
1548. Udall, etc., Erasm. Par., Luke xviii. 34. In these woordes of Jesus there laie priuely hidden some figurate & mistical manier of speaking.
a. 1677. Barrow, Serm., Wks. 1716, II. 363. Of those personal attributes, some at least do scarce admit those figurate senses, or do plainly refuse them.
1728. in Earbery, trans. Burnet’s St. Dead, II. 47. The Diction of holy Scripture is figurate.
† c. As pa. pple.: Figured, prefigured. Obs.
1563. Winȝet, Four Scoir Thre Quest., Wks. 1888, I. 85. The sacramentis of the Euangell exhibitis in deid and veritie thai graces figurat only and hoipit for in the Auld Testament.
d. Expressed by figures as opposed to letters.
1830. Westm. Rev., XIII. July, 229. That system [of numerical signs] is neither literal, like the Grecian or Roman, nor altogether figurate, like the Arabic, but something, if we may so express it, intermediate between both.
2. a. Having definite form or shape.
Now only in medical use, as figurate fæces (opposed to diffluent)
1626. Bacon, Sylva, § 602. Plants are all Figurate and Determinate, which Inanimate Bodies are not.
1678. Cudworth, Intell. Syst., 801. Tertullian here drives the business so far, as to make the Soul it self to be Corporeal, Figurate and Colorate.
1755. Johnson, Figurate, resembling anything of a determinate form, as figurate stones retaining the forms of shells in which they were formed by the deluge.
b. Formed into figures or patterns.
1867. J. Hogg, Microsc., I. ii. 133. The symmetrical and figurate depositions of siliceous crystals.
3. Math. † a. = FIGURAL 2. Obs.
1614. T. Bedwell, Nat. Geom. Numbers, i. 1. A rationall figurate number is a number that is made by the multiplication of numbers betweene them-selues.
1636. Recorde’s Gr. Artes, 559. A Figurate Number is a number made by the multiplication of one number or more by another.
1674. Jeake, A Compleat Body of Arithmetick (1696), 179. Figurate Fractions are deferred to the Fourth Chapter.
b. Figurate numbers: numbers, or series of numbers, formed from any arithmetical progression in which the first term is a unit, and the difference a whole number, by taking the first term, and the sums of the first two, first three, first four, etc., terms as the successive terms of a new series, from which another may be formed in the same manner, and so on. So Figurate arithmetic, the science of such numbers.
Thus from the arithmetical series 1, 2, 3, 4, etc., a second series 1, 3, 6, 10, etc. (‘triangular’ numbers) is formed as above described; and from this again a third series, 1, 4, 10, 20 (‘pyramidal’ numbers).
1706. W. Jones, Synopsis Palmariorum Matheseos, 163. The Sums of Numbers in a Continued Arithmetic Proportion from Unity are call’d Figurate or Combinatory Numbers.
1785. Hutton, Math. Tables, 7. The several orders of figurate numbers, which he [Vieta] calls triangular, pyramidal, etc.
1666. Collins, in Rigaud, Corr. Sci. Men (1841), I. 122. As to Figurate Arithmetic, it is largely handled in Maurolycus.
4. Music. = FLORID. Cf. FIGURED 7 a.
1708. J. Harris, Lex. Techn., s.v. Descant, Figurate or Florid Descant, is that wherein Discords are concerned, as well (though not so much) as concords.
1795. Mason, Ch. Mus., 28. The term figurate, which we now employ to distinguish florid from more simple melody, was then used to denote that, which was simply rhythmical or accentual.
1833. New Monthly Mag., XXXVIII. 199. Haydn’s masses are more figurate than those of his predecessors; in a word they demonstrate the characteristics of his genius and his age.
B. sb.
† 1. Something possessing form or shape. rare.
1610. W. Folkingham, Art of Survey, II. ix. 62. The Content Solid is of Timber, Stone, and other Bodies or Figurates.
2. A figurate number: † a. a number consisting of factors; esp. an integral power of any number. Equilater figurate: a square number. Cf. A. 3 a. Obs.
1614. T. Bedwell, Nat. Geom. Numbers, i. 4. The figurate 4 is made by one multiplication of one number by it selfe. Ibid., An equilater figurate is made of equall numbers, or of one number multiplied by it selfe.
b. (See A. 3 b.)
1796. Hutton, Math. Dict., I. 469/2. Malcolm’s Arithmetic, pa. 396, where the subject of Figurates is treated in a very extensive and perspicuous manner.
