vbl. sb. The action or practice of casting a figure (see CAST v. 39).
1600. Abp. Abbot, An Exposition upon the Prophet Jonah (1613), 280. Figure-casting for such things as are lost, or to iudge of natiuities, if fully within that kind, and is a lying vanitie, as that which is most lying.
1625. Hart, The Anatomie of Urines, II. xi. 123. Many Witches and Wizards haue sometimes performed such cures as haue often astonished some of great vnderstanding: that I say nothing of our Spelmongers, curing by characters, figure-casting, with a world of other forbidden trash.
1868. Milman, Annals of S. Paul’s Cathedral, 299. He was preaching before the Court, wisely enough, against the foolish fears driven into people’s heads from the conjunction or opposition of planets, and from figure-casting.
