Figure sb.

Forms: 3–4 vig(o)ur, (3 wygur), 4–5 fig(o)ur, (5 fegure), 4–6 fygure, 3– figure. [a. Fr. figure (= Pr., Sp., It. figura), ad. L. figūra, f. *fig- short stem of fingĕre: see FEIGN.

  The L. word was the ordinary rendering of Gr. σχῆμα (see SCHEME) in its many technical uses; several of the senses below are traceable, wholly or in part, to Greek philosophy.]

  I.  Form, shape.

  1.  The form of anything as determined by the outline; external form; shape generally.

1393.  Gower, Conf., III. 52.

1477.  Earl Rivers (Caxton), Dictes, 141. A man that is in a derke kaue may not se his propre figure.

1535.  Coverdale, Ezek. x. 22. The figure of their faces was, euen as I had sene them, by the water Cobar.

1626.  Bacon, Sylva, § 221. The Figure of a Bell partaketh of the Pyramis.

1697.  Dampier, Voy. (1729), I. 537. Their [Hottentots’] Faces are of a flat oval Figure, of the Negro make, with great Eye-brows, black Eyes, but neither are their Noses so flat, nor their Lips so thick, as the Negroes of Guinea.

1698.  J. Keill, Examination of Dr. Burnet’s Theory of the Earth (1734), 289. The Theorist had resoned well all this time about the Earth, and had deduced its true Figure from its true causes.

1756.  Nugent, Gr. Tour, I. 164. The figure of the city [Leuwarden] is an oblong square, encompassed with strong ramparts, a broad and deep ditch, five bulwarks of earth, with a ditch each.

1830.  Kater & Lardn., Mech., i. 5. Bodies having very different volumes may have the same figure.

1878.  Huxley, Physiography, xix. 318. In addition to this change of size and of distinctness, the figure of the ship suffers a change.

  b.  In generalized sense, as an attribute of body.

1471.  Ripley, Comp. Alch., III. in Ashm. (1652) 141.

1690.  Locke, Hum. Und., II. xxxi. § 2. Solidity, and Extension, and the Termination of it, Figure.

1744.  J. Harris, Three Treat. (1841), 29. The fittest subjects for painting, are all such things and incidents as are peculiarly characterized by figure and colour.

1831.  Brewster, Optics, xvii. § 90. 147. I found that all those crystals whose primitive or simplest form had only ONE AXIS of figure, or one pre-eminent line round which the figure was symmetrical, had also ONE AXIS of double refraction; and that their axis of figure was also the AXIS of double refraction.

1875.  Jowett, Plato (ed. 2), I. 275, Meno. Figure is the only thing that always follows colour.

  † c.  Appearance, aspect; also, attitude, posture.

1513.  Douglas, Æneis, V. xiii. 13.

1658.  Sir T. Browne, Hydriotaphia, iv. 58. Diogenes was singular, who preferred a prone situation in the grave, and some Christians like neither, who decline the figure of rest, and make choice of an erect posture.

1684.  Charnock, Attrib. God (1834), II. 577. To have devout figures of the face, and uncomely postures of the soul, is to exclude his dominion from our spirits.

  d.  transf. The ‘shape,’ state (of a matter). rare.

1858.  Carlyle, Fredk. Gt. (1865), I. III. iii. 150. As to Friedrich’s Pomeranian quarrel, this is the figure of it.

  2.  Geom. A definite form constituted by a given line or continuous series of lines so arranged as to enclose a superficial space, or by a given surface or series of surfaces enclosing a space of three dimensions; any of the classes or species of such forms, as the triangle, circle, cube, sphere, etc.

1340.  Ayenb., 234. Ine þe rounde figure: þe ende went ayen to his ginninge.

1551.  Recorde, Pathw. Knowl., 1. Defin. Of figures there be manie sortes, for either thei be made of prickes, lines, or platte formes.

1570.  Bullingsley, Euclid, I. xv. 3. Of all figures a circle is the most perfect.

1603.  Holland, Plutarch’s Mor., 814. A Figure is the superficies, circumscription, and accomplished lineament of a bodie.

1714.  Steele, Englishman, No. 46, 19 Jan., 295. The British Constitution has been compared to that beautiful Figure in Architecture called a Pyramid; the Basis is the People, the Middle the Nobility, and the Top the Monarch.

1809–10.  Coleridge, The Friend (1865), 97. The rational idea of a circle is that of a figure constituted by the circumvolution of a straight line with its one end fixed.

1823.  H. J. Brooke, Introd. Crystallogr., 137. The new figures would be octahedrons, more acute than the primary.

1840.  Lardner, Geom., 134. A figure may be constructed similar to a given figure, and having its sides in any proposed ratio to those of the given figure.

  † 3.  The proper or distinctive shape or appearance (of a person or thing). Obs.

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 22148 (Cott.).

c. 1340.  Richard Rolle of Hampole, Prick of Conscience, 2320. Þat saghe a devel in his fygur right.

c. 1386.  Chaucer, Monk’s T., 232. Than … God … him [Nebuchadnezzar] restored to his regne and his figure.

c. 1400.  Maundev. (Roxb.), iv. 13. Scho bad hem þat he schuld kisse hir mouthe and hafe na drede of hir, what figure so euer he sawe hir.

a. 1400–50.  Alexander, 360. Þe figour of a freke · he sall take eftire.

1475.  The Boke of Noblesse (1860), 21. Many soche wonderfulle entreprises as is wreten that Hercules did, whiche is writen in figure of a poesy for to courage and comfort alle othre noble men of birthe to be victorious in entreprinses of armes.

1599.  Shaks., Much Ado, I. i. 15. He hath borne himselfe beyond the promise of his age, doing in the figure of a Lambe, the feats of a Lion.

1611.  Bible, Isa. xliv. 13. The carpenter … maketh it after the figure of a man.

  4.  Of a living being: Bodily shape, occas. including appearance and bearing. Now chiefly of persons.

13[?].  E. E. Allit. P., A. 746. Quo formed þe þy fayre fygure?

1483.  Caxton, Gold. Leg., 283 b/1. A Monk of a ryght honourable fygure and parure. Ibid. (1484), Fables of Æsop, IV. iv. To the [the pecok] they [the goddes] haue gyuen fayr fygure.

a. 1533.  Ld. Berners, Huon, xlii. 140. Yf I shold dyscryue his foule fygure at length, it shold anoye all the herers therof.

1637.  Nabbes, Microcosm., I. C ij.

1740.  Chesterf., Lett., I. lxii. 174. Poets take the liberty of personifying inanimate things; that is, they describe, and represent, as persons, the passions, the appetites, and many other things that have no figures nor persons belonging to them.

1774.  Goldsm., Nat. Hist. (1776), II. 106. There is little known exactly with regard to the proportion of the human figure; and the beauty of the best statues is better conceived, by observing than by measuring them. Ibid., IV. 24. There are few readers that are not as well acquainted with the figure of a Squirrel as that of the rabbit.

1863.  Fr. A. Kemble, Resid. in Georgia, 42. The figures of some of the women are handsome, and their carriage, from the absence of any confining or tightening clothing, and the habit they have of balancing great weights on their heads, erect and good.

1869.  Boutell, Arms & Arm., vii. 109. This hauberk was adjusted to the figure by a belt.

1888.  Burgon, Lives of Twelve Good Men, I. ii. 140. The air of authority with which he [Hugh James Rose] spoke suited well his dignified aspect and commanding figure, and was in strict keeping with the solemnity of his deportment.

  b.  The bodily frame, considered with regard to its appearance.

1715–20.  Pope, Iliad, IX. 71.

  5.  An embodied (human) form; a person considered with regard to visible form or appearance.

c. 1250.  Gen. & Ex., 1005.

c. 1420.  Anturs of Arth., xi. Ho was a figure of flesche, fayrest of alle.

c. 1450.  Lonelich, Grail, xliii. 303. The fegure þat there-owt gan gon.

1602.  Shaks., Ham., I. i. 109.

1673.  Dryden, Marriage à la Mode, III. i. Phil. Figure: As, what a figure of a man is there! Naive, and naiveté.

1730.  A. Gordon, Maffei’s Amphith., 50. The Medal of Alexander Severus has two Figures represented on it, in the Action of going into the Amphitheatre.

1754.  Richardson, Grandison, IV. xxi. 153. She is a very fine figure of a woman.

1768.  Sterne, Sent. Journ. (1782), II. 81. A tall figure, of a philosophic, serious, adust look.

1877.  Rita, Vivienne, I. iv. He saw a figure leaning against the embrasure of one of the windows.

  b.  colloq. A person of grotesque or untidy appearance. Figure of fun: a ludicrous personage, an oddity.

1774.  Mad. D’Arblay, Early Diary (1889), I. 322. I had been confined up stairs for three days—however, I was much better, and obtained leave to come down, though very much wrapt up, and quite a figure.

1811.  Miss L. M. Hawkins, The Countess and Gertrude, I. xi. 180. Whenever the servants set up a shout of merriment on seeing ‘the little figure of fun’ in some new habiliment.

1813.  Lady Burghersh, in Lett. (1893), 61. Words can’t describe the figures the women dress here of a morning.

1840.  Mrs. F. Trollope, Widow Married, vii. What on earth can have induced you to make such a figure of yourself?

1861.  Hughes, Tom Brown at Oxf., xviii. (1889), 173. The figure of fun was a middle-aged man of small stature, and very bandy-legged, dressed in a blue coat and brass buttons, and carrying a great bass-viol bigger than himself, in a rough baize cover.

1886.  Burton, Arab. Nts., I. 82. Each of them is a figure o’ fun after his own fashion.

  6.  transf. A person as an object of mental contemplation; a personage.

1734.  Watts, Reliquiæ Juveniles, 280. She had rather bear an Inconvenience herself, than give an Uneasiness even to the meaner Figures of Mankind: Every one loves to do kind Offices for Placentia, and happy are they who can administer any Relief to her in all her painful Hours.

1847.  Emerson, Repr. Men, Goethe, Wks. (Bohn), I. 389. And he flung into literature, in his Mephistopheles, the first organic figure that has been added for some ages, and which will remain as long as the Prometheus.

1874.  Green, Short Hist., vi. § 6. 335. It is indeed this utter absence of all passion, of all personal feeling, that makes the figure of [Thomas] Cromwell the most terrible in our history.

1888.  Bryce, Amer. Commw., II. liii. 327. One cannot note the disappearance of this brilliant figure [Hamilton], to Europeans the most interesting in the earlier history of the Republic, without the remark that his countrymen seem to have never, either in his lifetime or afterwards, duly recognized his splendid gifts.

1915.  Hayden Church, in Strand Mag., L. Aug., 252/1. An elderly man who is the central figure [Dr. William Minor] in the strangest story that has been told for many a long day.

  7.  Conspicuous appearance. In phrase To make (familiarly to cut) a figure:

  a.  in neutral sense, with qualifying adj.: To present a (good, bad, splendid, ridiculous, etc.) appearance; to produce an impression of specified character on the beholder.

1699.  Bentley, Phal., 361. Where any Metaphor at all makes but a very bad Figure, especially a new one, as this must needs be then, which perhaps could not be understood at first hearing by one half of the Citizens.

1710.  Steele, Tatler, No. 57, 20 Aug., ¶ 1. To understand among what Sort of Men we make the best Figure.

1727.  A. Hamilton, New Acc. E. Ind., I. xii. 134. The City makes a good Figure from the Sea, shewing four or five high Steeples.

1766.  Goldsm., Vic. W., x. When Moses has trimmed them a little, they will cut a very tolerable figure.

1791.  ‘G. Gambado,’ Ann. Horsem., v. (1809), 87. London Riders, or Bagsters; who cut, or rather (as my Lord Chesterfield will have it) make so smart a figure in a country town.

1882.  Serjt. Ballantine, Exper., l. 456. Witnesses of this kind cut but an awkward figure in the hands of a skilful counsel; the more so that they feel that they may have been misled and conveyed erroneous ideas.

1883.  S. C. Hall, Retrospect, I. 240. He [William Cobbett] made but a poor figure in the House; had not a scintillation of eloquence, and his manner was brusque almost to coarseness.

  b.  To appear in a ridiculous aspect.

1726.  Adv. Capt. R. Boyle, 212. It was as much as I could do to keep my Countenance at the Figure he made.

1854.  Felton, Fam. Lett., xlvi. (1865), 343. There is nothing more comical than the figure an English scholar cuts when he first comes to Athens.

  c.  To occupy a conspicuous or distinguished position; to play a prominent or important part; to attract admiration or respect. Cf. F. faire figure.

1691.  J. Wilson, Belphegor, V. i. Dram. Wks. (1874), 368. Fies. And what figure do you make in this house?

1697.  Dryden, Æneid, II. 116.

1711.  Addison, Spect., No. 92, 15 June, ¶ 8. Some of them who talk much better than several Gentlemen that make a Figure at Will’s.

1736.  Butler, Anal., I. iii. The sense which mankind have of tyranny, injustice, oppression, additional to the mere feeling or fear of misery, has doubtless been instrumental in bringing about revolutions, which make a figure even in the history of the world.

1749.  Chesterf., Lett., II. 233. I am very willing that you should make, but very unwilling that you should cut, a figure with them at the Jubilee; the cutting a figure being the very lowest vulgarism in the English language; and equal in elegancy to Yes, my Lady, and No, my Lady.

1762–71.  H. Walpole, Vertue’s Anecd. Paint. (1786), I. 223. The first painter who seems to have made any figure in this reign was Lucas De Heere, born in Ghent in 1534.

1809.  Syd. Smith, Wks. (1859), I. 171/2. Boys, who make a considerable figure at school, so very often make no figure in the world;—and why other lads, who are passed over without notice, turn out to be valuable important men.

1824.  W. Irving, T. Trav., I. 187. If they did not make much figure in talking, they did in eating.

1864.  Burton, Scot Abr., I. iv. 206. Kirkaldy of Grange, who afterwards cut some figure in politics, is revealed in these papers as one of the most active and ingenious agents in the national revolution.

  8.  Importance, distinction, ‘mark.’ Now only with reference to persons, in phrases (somewhat arch.) man, woman of figure, a person of rank and station.

1692.  Dryden, St. Evremont’s Ess., 192. Persons of the greatest Figure make every thing valued according to their Fancy.

1703.  Maundrell, Journ. Jerus. (1732), 44. Another River, of no inconsiderable figure.

1711.  Addison, Spect., No. 122, 20 July, · 7. The speech … was … designed … to give him a Figure in my Eye, and keep up his Credit in the Country.

1769.  De Foe’s Tour Gt. Brit., II. 63. Wallingford, called, by the antient Britons, Gwal Hen, i. e. Old Fort; a Place of great Figure.

c. 1800.  K. White, Rem. (1837), 379. When I met him one day, in company with persons of apparent figure, he had lost all recollections of my features.

1851.  Carlyle, Sterling, II. i. (1872), 89. Was known, according to his wish, in political and other circles, as Mr. Sterling, a private gentleman of some figure.

  b.  Style of living, ostentation, display, arch.

1602.  Ld. Cromwell (1613), III. iii. 2.

1720.  De Foe, Capt. Singleton, xx. (1840), 342. He obliged her not to increase her figure, but live private.

1807.  Fielding’s Tom Jones, I. Life, 11. Fond of figure and magnificence, he incumbered himself with a large retinue.

1831.  Carlyle, Sterling, I. ix. (1872), 55. His Father, Lieutenant-General Barton of the Life-guards, an Irish landlord, I think in Fermanagh County, and a man of connections about Court, lived in a certain figure here in Town; had a wife of fashionable habits, with other sons, and also daughters, bred in this sphere.

  II.  Represented form; image, likeness.

  9.  The image, likeness, or representation of something material or immaterial.

a. 1340.  Hampole, Psalter, xxii. 4. Ill men, amange whaim goed men wonnes, beris þe figure of ded.

c. 1400.  Maundev. (Roxb.), vii. 25. Euermare in þe middes of þam es funden þe figure of þe crosse.

1481.  Caxton, Mirrour of the World, I. iii. 9. Ffor he [God] shewde to hym [man] so grete loue, that aboue alle other creatures he fourmed hym to his figure and semblaunce.

1531.  Elyot, The Boke Named the Gouernour, I. xxvi. There is nat a more playne figure of idlenesse, than playinge at dise.

1608.  Shaks., Per., V. iii. 92.

1658.  Sir T. Browne, Hydriotaphia, iii. 40. The cemiterial Cels of ancient Christians and Martyrs, were filled with draughts of Scripture Stories; not declining the flourishes of Cypresse, Palms, and Olive; and the mystical Figures of Peacocks, Doves and Cocks.

1791.  Burke, App. Whigs, Wks. VI. 30. Rousseau is their canon of holy writ; in his life he is their canon of Polycletus; he is their standard figure of perfection.

1878.  B. Taylor, Deukalion, The Argument, x. She is no figure of the Faith of her day and world, but only of that Ecclesiastical System which essayed in shape and compel to its service all the forces of Life.

  † b.  An imaginary form, a phantasm. Obs.

c. 1384.  Chaucer, H. Fame, I. 43.

1598.  Shaks., Merry W., IV. ii. 231. If it be but to scrape the figures out of your husbands braines.

  10.  esp. An artificial representation of the human form.

  a.  In sculpture: A statue, an image, an effigy.

  † To work by the figure (quot. 1598): perh. to operate on a wax effigy of a person, for the purpose of enchantment (Schmidt); some have referred it to sense 14.

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 2290 (Cott.).

a. 1300.  E. E. Psalter, xcvi[i]. 7.

c. 1400.  Destr. Troy, 4349. The Figur of his fader was falsly honouryt.

1483.  Caxton, Cato, A iij b. To adoure the ymages and other fygures humayn.

1535.  Lyndesay, Ane Satyre of the Thrie Estaits, 4087, stage direction. Heir sal Dissait be drawin vp, or ellis his figure.

1598.  Shaks., Merry W., IV. ii. 185. She [a witch] workes by Charmes, by Spels, by th’ Figure, & such dawbry as this is beyond our Element.

1611.  Bible, 1 Kings vi. 29. And hee carued all the walles of the house round about with carued figures of Cherubims, and palme trees, and open flowres, within & without.

1697.  Dryden, Virg. Georg., II. 643.

1717.  Lady M. W. Montagu, Lett., II. xlvi. 35. All the figures have their heads on.

1807–8.  Scott, Wav., App. ii. I tried, by an innocent stratagem, to frighten her from the castle, by introducing a figure through a trap-door, and warning her, as if by a voice from the dead, to retreat from thence.

1851.  Hussey, The Rise of the Papal Power iii. 158. The Council of Nicæa, A. D. 787, (named the seventh General) which condemned the Iconoclasts or figure-breakers, and authorized the use of figures in Churches.

  b.  In painting, drawing, etc.: A representation of human form (as opposed to landscape, still life, etc.). Now restricted to representation of the whole or greater part of the body.

c. 1400.  Maundev. (Roxb.), xi. 43. A boist of grene iasper with foure figures and viii. names of oure Lord þerin.

c. 1440.  Promp. Parv., 159/2. Fygure, or lykenesse.

1676.  North’s Plutarch, Add. Lives, 75. His Cabinet, furnished with many Pourtraitures and Figures of those who had been Travellers.

1695.  Dryden, trans. Du Fresnoy’s Art Painting, Preface, p. xxxvii. In the principal Figures of a Picture, the Painter is to employ the sinews of his Art, for in them consists the principal beauty of his Work.

1705.  Addison, Italy, 13. Hung with Tapestry, in which are wrought the Figures of the great Persons that the Family has produced.

1821.  W. M. Craig, Lectures on Drawing, etc., viii. 428. If your subject be of figures, the most important of those must receive the chief light.

1832.  G. Downes, Letters from Continental Countries, I. 14. On the front are the figures of his wife and child.

  c.  Her. (Cf. F. figure the face.)

1727–41.  Chambers, Cycl., Figure, in Heraldry, a bearing in a Shield, representing, or resembling a human Face; as a Sun, a Wind, an Angel, &c.

  † 11.  Represented character; part enacted; hence, position, capacity. Obs.

1610.  Shaks., Temp., III. iii. 83.

1673.  Dryden, Marriage à la Mode, V. i. When he was a private man he was a figure; but since he is a king, methinks he has assumed another figure: He looks so grand, and so august!

1675.  Temple, Lett. to Sir J. Williamson, Wks. 1731, II. 344. I was very confident his Majesty would upon no Occasion quit the Figure of Mediator, having once undertaken it, and being so universally accepted.

1711.  Steele, Spect., No. 262, 31 Dec., ¶ 6. I have taken more than ordinary Care not to give Offence to those who appear in the higher Figures of Life.

1724.  De Foe, Mem. Cavalier (1840), 113. Your majesty, said I, shall be always served by me in any figure you please.

  † b.  One acting a part. Obs. rare.

1494.  Fabyan, Chron. VII. ccxxviii. 258. She was there as a fygure, a woman werynge that habyte without professyon of ordre, and this was thus ordered by her fader, to the ende to put by vnworthy wowers.

  † c.  A person dressed in character. Obs.

1767.  J. Penn, Sleepy Serm., v. It is a reflection upon the oeconomy of you laity to permit, by your encouragement, horse-jockeys, conjurers, Italian figures, rope-dancers, and ballad-singers, to acquire fortunes and estates.

  12.  An emblem, type. † In figure: in emblematical representation. † To be in figure: to be typical. † In figure to: emblematic of.

a. 1340.  Hampole, Psalter, cxlvi. 8. He hilys halywrit wiþ figurs forto stire men to seke.

c. 1366.  Chaucer, A. B. C., 169. Ysaak was figure of his [Christ’s] deth certeyn.

c. 1450.  Life of St. Cuthbert (Surtees), 697.

1497.  Bp. Alcock, Mons Perfect., A ij. This mount is in fygure & sygnyfyeth Relygyon.

1532.  More, Confut. Tindale, Wks. 385/1. Al thing vnto them came in figures.

1607–12.  Bacon, Ess. Counsel (Arb.), 312. The auncient tymes doe sett fourth in figure both the incorporacion, and inseparable coniunction of Councell with Kinges.

1637.  Nabbes, Microcosm., I. C.

1647.  Saltmarsh, Sparkles of Glory (1847), 149. A rest or peace in figure to that glory and fulness to be revealed in us.

1651.  C. Cartwright, Certamen Religiosum, I. 122. The Rock signified Christ, was a Type and a Figure of Christ.

1730–6.  in Bailey (folio).

1855.  Macaulay, Hist. Eng., IV. 453. It has long been usual to represent the imagination under the figure of a wing.

  III.  Delineated or devised form; a design or pattern.

  13.  A delineation illustrating the text of a book; a diagram, an illustration. When used as a reference usually abbreviated to fig.

  The L. figura = Gr. [Greek] as applied to mathematical diagrams; but the mod. use is influenced by sense 9.

c. 1391.  Chaucer, Astrol., I. § 3. For the more declaracioun, lo here the figure.

1545.  Raynold, Byrth Mankynde (1564), B ij. Not onely in wordes, but also in liuely and expresse fygures.

1551.  Recorde, Pathw. Knowl., II. Preface. Then will I in like maner prepare to sette foorth the other bookes, whiche now are lefte vnprinted, by occasion not so muche of the charges in cuttyng of the figures, as for other iuste hynderances.

a. 1660.  W. Oughtred (title), Mathematicall Recreations, or a Collection of sundry Problemes … illustrated with divers Brasse Figures.

1703.  Moxon, Mech. Exerc., 173. As you see in the Figure at b.

1849.  Sk. Nat. Hist., Mammalia, IV. 113. Two figures of skulls (Fig. 71 and 72) represent the skull of a species termed, by F. Cuvier, Acanthion Javanicum, and that of the common porcupine by way of comparison.

1851.  P. L. Simmonds (title), Ure’s Cotton Manufacture … in two volumes with one hundred and fifty original figures.

1885.  Leudesdorf, Cremona’s Proj. Geom., 81. Let in the first figure a transversal m be drawn to cut a, b, c, d in A, B, C, D respectively.

  14.  Astrol. A diagram of the aspects of the astrological houses; a horoscope. A figure of heaven or the heavens: a scheme or table showing the disposition of the heavens at a given time. To cast, erect, set a figure: see the vbs.

1393.  Gower, Conf., III. 79.

1610.  B. Jonson, Alch., IV. iv. By erection of her figure, I gest it.

1651.  trans. Bacon’s Life & Death, 1. The Figures of Heaven, under which they were borne.

1678.  Butler, Hud., III. i. 455. He set a Figure to discover    If you were fled to Rye or Dover.

1716.  Addison, Drummer, II. i. I fancy they are casting a Figure.

1831.  Brewster, Newton (1855), I. ii. 21. He bought a book on Judicial Astrology at Stourbridge fair, and in the course of perusing it he came to a figure of the Heavens, which he could not understand without a previous knowledge of trigonometry.

  15.  An arrangement of lines or other markings forming an ornamental device; one of the devices combined into a decorative pattern; also applied to similar markings produced by natural agency. Also collect. † In figure: so as to form a pattern.

1597.  Shaks., Lovers Compl., 15.

1625.  Bacon, Ess. Friendship (Arb.), 175. It was well said by Themistocles to the king of Persia, That speech was like Cloth of Arras, opened, and put abroad; Whereby the Imagery doth appeare in Figure; whereas in Thoughts, they lie but as in Packs.

1637.  Milton, Lycidas, 105.

1665.  G. Havers, Sir T. Roe’s Voy. E. Ind., 447. This Seal … the Great Mogul, either in a large, or lesser figure causeth to be put into all Firmanes.

1833.  Ht. Martineau, Loom & Lugger, II. vi. 118. A beautiful figure that velvet has, to be sure.

1855.  Tennyson, Brook, 103.

1860.  Tyndall, Glac., II. i. 232. The luminous figure reflected from such a surface is exceedingly beautiful.

  transf.  1667.  Milton, P. L., VII. 425.

1718.  Lady M. W. Montagu, Lett., 10 April (1861), I. 358. He … begins a sort of solemn dance. They all stand about him in a regular figure.

  16.  Dancing. One of the evolutions or movements of a dance or dancer; also, a set of evolutions; one of the divisions into which a set dance is divided.

1636.  Massinger, Gt. Dk. Florence, IV. i.

1806–7.  J. Beresford, Miseries Hum. Life (1826), III. xvii. Blundering in the figure all the way down a country-dance, with a charming partner, to whom you are a perfect stranger; and who, consequently, knows nothing of you but your awkwardness.

1825.  Analysis of the London Ball-room, 62. The figure and tune being selected, the M. C. should be informed of it, who will make it known to the other sets and to the musicians.

1874.  Mrs. H. Wood, Mast. Greylands, I. 84. Such was the commencement of the figure.

  17.  Skating. ‘A movement, or series of movements, beginning and ending at the centre’ (Badm. Libr., Skating, 145).

1869.  Vandervell & Witham, Syst. Figure-skating, ix. 164. To commence a figure the skaters stand opposite each other, as on the sides of a square.

  IV.  A written character. Cf. 15.

  † 18.  gen. Applied, e.g., to a letter of the alphabet, the symbol of a musical note, a mathematical symbol, etc. Obs.

1597.  Morley, Introd. Mus., Annot. Figures in time shorter than minimes cannot be tied or enter in ligature.

1607.  Shaks., Timon, V. i. 157.

1609.  Douland, Ornith. Microl., 39. A Breefe is a Figure, which hath a body foure-square, and wants a tayle [symbol].

1660.  Barrow, Euclid, II. i. Schol. Seeing by reason of the figure — that A is not denied of all B. but only of so much as it exceeds C.

  19.  A numerical symbol. Originally, and still chiefly, applied to the ten symbols of the so-called Arabic notation. Two (or double), three, four, etc. figures; a number amounting to ten or more, a hundred or more, a thousand or more, etc.; a sum of money indicated by such a number. Man of figures: one versed in arithmetic or statistics.

  In Cricket, To get into or reach double or three figures = to make ten or a hundred runs.

a. 1225.  Ancr. R., 214. Þe þiscare … makeð þerinne figures of augrim.

c. 1305.  Edmund Conf., 223, in E. E. P. (1862), 77.

c. 1369.  Chaucer, Dethe Blaunche, 447. And recken with his figures ten.

c. 1425.  Craft Nombrynge, 1. In þis craft ben vsid teen figurys.

1542.  Recorde, Gr. Artes (1575), 42. There are but ten Figures, that are vsed in Arithmetike.

1600.  T. Hill, Arith., 5 b. The Cipher (for so the figure is peculiarly named, although it be generally called and accompted as a figure).

1674.  Playford, Skill Mus., I. xi. 36. The Figures usually placed over Notes in the Thorough-Bass of Songs or Ayres.

1746–7.  Hervey, Medit. (1818), 67. Arithmeticians have figures to compute all the progressions of time; astronomers have instruments to calculate the distances of the planets; but what number can state, what lines can guage, the lengths and breadths of eternity?

1817.  Tierney, in Parl. Deb., 1357. A triumphant answer to them might be expected from the noble lord; but he could not disprove figures.

1884.  Punch, LXXXVI. 5 April, 161/1. Mr. Boughton, A.R.A., sends a ‘single figure,’—for which he asks three figures, and it’s well worth its.

1884.  Lillywhite’s Cricket Ann., 64. Lancashire could not reach three figures either time.

  b.  Figure of eight: see EIGHT 3. Also attrib., as in figure of eight bandage, suture. Figure of eight moth: (see quot.).

1604.  Marston, Malcontent, IV. ii. [The brawl] Why, ’tis but singles on the left, two on the right … a figure of eight.

1815.  Kirby & Sp., Entomol., I. 196. The figure-of-eight-moth (Bombyx cæruleocephala, F.).

1871.  Holmes, Syst. Surg. (ed. 2), V. 508. The figure of eight bandage is formed of a single continuous roller.

  c.  Figure (of) four: a trap for catching animals, the trigger of which is set in the shape of the figure 4.

1872.  O. W. Holmes, Poet Breakf.-t., i. (1B85), 10. Rabbits are entrapped in ‘figgery fours.’

1889.  Farmer, Americanisms, Figure Four, a hunter’s trap for large game. Also called a dead-fall.

  20.  Hence, An amount, number, sum of money expressed in figures.

1842.  Punch, II. 118/2. He may put a better dessert upon his table at a lighter figure than now.

1848.  Thackeray, Bk. Snobs, x. Accommodating a youngster, who had just entered the regiment, with a glandered charger at an uncommonly stiff figure.

1869.  Tyndall, Notes of a Course of Nine Lectures on Light, § 127. The index of refraction of the diamond reached, according to his measurements, so high a figure as 2.439.

  V.  In various uses, representing the technical applications of Gr. σχῆμα.

  21.  Rhet. Any of the various ‘forms’ of expression, deviating from the normal arrangement or use of words, which are adopted in order to give beauty, variety, or force to a composition; e.g., Aposiopesis, Hyperbole, Metaphor, etc. Also, figure of speech.

c. 1386.  Chaucer, Clerk’s Prol., 16.

1589.  Puttenham, Eng. Poesie, III. vii. (Arb.), 166. Figures be the instruments of ornament in euery language.

1596.  Harington, Metam. Ajax (1814), 11. And minding to speak it shorter, by the figure of abbreviation.

1609.  Bible (Douay), Ps. cxiii. Comm. By the figure Apostrophe he speaketh to the sea, river, and hilles.

c. 1633.  Hobbes, Rhet. (1840), 519. A figure is garnishing of speech in words, or in a sentence.

1665.  Boyle, Occas. Refl., Preface (1848), xxii. One might methinks reasonably expect but Light Censures for imploying upon occasion, that noble Figure of Rhetorick call’d Hyperbole.

1766.  Chesterf., Lett., 188. The Egotism is the usuall and favourite figure of most people’s Rhetorick.

1824.  L. Murray, Eng. Gram. (ed. 5), I. 486. Figures of Speech imply some departure from simplicity of expression.

1878.  Bosw. Smith, Carthage, 167. The proverb ‘as many slaves, so many enemies,’ was, in their case, no figure of rhetoric but the stern and simple truth.

  b.  In a more restricted sense (with mixture of senses 9 and 12): A metaphor or metaphorical mode of expression; an image, similitude.

1435.  Misyn, Fire of Love, 3. Þe flaume, whilk vndyr fygure I cald fyer.

1526.  Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 1. Declareth it by the similitude and fygure of the passage of the chyldren of Israel from Egypte.

1611.  Bible, 1 Cor. iv. 6. These things, brethren, I haue in a figure transferred to my selfe, and to Apollo, for your sakes.

1717.  Pope, etc., Of the Art of Sinking in Poetry, 77. That … destroyer of fine figures, which is known by the name of common sense.

1782.  Priestley, Corrupt. Chr., I. II. 156. [These] expressions, which have much the air of figure and allusion.

1855.  Brimley, Ess., 44. Simile and figure may be regarded as a natural short hand.

1875.  Jowett, Plato (ed. 2), III. 96, The Republic, Introduction. The old Pythagorean ethical symbols still exist as figures of speech among ourselves.

  22.  Grammar. Any of the permitted deviations from the normal forms of words (e.g., Aphæresis, Syncope, Elision), or from the ordinary rules of construction (e.g., Ellipsis). † Formerly also figure of speech.

1669.  Milton, Accedence Gram., Wks. 1851, VI. 467. Words are sometimes encreast or diminisht by a Letter or Syllable, in the beginning, middle or ending, which are call’d Figures of Speech.

1721–1800.  in Bailey.

  23.  Logic. (See quot. 1837–8.)

1551.  Wilson, Logike (1567), 286. Examples of the firste figure and the modes thereof.

1589.  Pappe with an Hatchet, B b. ’Tis neither in moode nor figure: all the better, for I am in a moode to cast a figure, that shall bring them to the conclusion.

1628.  T. Spencer, Logick, 258. Aristotle delivers the forme of Syllogismes … and divides them into three figures.

1663.  Evelyn, Mem. (1857), III. 141. A Reverend Father … has put Mr. Cressy’s rhapsody into mode and figure.

1708.  Swift, Sacramental Test. As to that argument used for repealing the Test, that it will unite all Protestants against the common enemy, I wonder by what figure those gentlemen speak who are pleased to advance it.

1837–8.  Sir W. Hamilton, Logic, xx. (1866), I. 400. The forms determined by the different position of the middle term by relation to the major and minor terms in the premises of a syllogism, are called Figures …—a name given to them by Aristotle.

  24.  Mus. ‘Any short succession of notes, either as melody or a group of chords, which produces a single, complete, and distinct impression’ (Grove).

1884.  R. Prentice, Musician, III. 29. The first Invention is founded entirely on the opening eight-note figure.

  VI.  attrib. and Comb.

  25.  a. simple attrib. (sense 10), as figure- action, -incident, -painting, -picture, -piece, -sculpture, -study, -subject; b. objective (sense 4), as figure-training; (senses 10, 15) as figure-carver, carving, -stamper, -weaving.

1860.  Ruskin, Mod. Paint., V. IX. i. § 2. 198. It [heroic landscape] is frequently without architecture; never without *figure-action, or emotion…. It [contemplative landscape] admits every variety of subject, and requires, in general, *figure incident, but not of an exciting character.

1868.  G. Stephens, Runic Monuments, II. 511. All the rudeness which belongs to the *figure-stampers and *figure-carvers of the Early and still more of the Later Iron Age.

1849.  Southey, Comm.-pl. Bk., Ser. II. 345. One demonstration of joy which he made at dinner was to cut up a fowl in the air…. This sort of *figure-carving implies abominable cookery.

1873.  Hamerton, Intell. Life, VII. 239. The wife is with you always, she is almost as near to you as your own body; the world, to you, is a *figure-picture in which there is one figure, the rest is merely background.

1864.  A. M‘Kay, The History of Kilmarnock (ed. 4), 284. He talent was of a general cast. Portraits, landscapes, and *figure-pieces he painted with a rapidity somewhat surprising.

1874.  Micklethwaite, Modern Parish Churches, 111–2. Whether or not *figure-sculpture ought to be employed in ecclesiastical architecture, is a question which may with perfect propriety be raised.

1884.  Ruskin, in Pall Mall G., 10 Dec., 11/1. The vast irruption of sensual *figure-study, partonised by the now all-powerful Republican demi-monde of the French capital.

1877.  W. Jones, Finger-ring, 374. An ivory patch-box, with *figure-subject carved in relief.

1871.  (title) *Figure Training.

1831.  G. R. Porter, Silk Manuf., 234. *Figure-weaving is the art of producing various patterns in the cloth.

  26.  Special comb.: figure-maker, (a) one who casts or moulds figures; (b) a maker of wooden anatomical models for artists; figure-servant, nonce-wd., a commercial clerk; figure-six a. (see quot. 1851); figure-skater, one who practises figure-skating; figure-skating, the art or practice of skating in figures (see FIGURE sb. 17); figure-stone (Min.) = AGALMATOLITE. Also FIGURE-CASTER, FIGURE-DANCE, FIGURE-FLINGER, etc.

1850.  J. H. Newman, Diffic. Anglic., 205. Operatives, journeymen, *figure-servants, and labourers.

1851.  Mayhew, Lond. Labour, I. 36/2. As for the hair, they [coster-lads] say it ought to be long in front, and done in *figure-six curls or twisted back to the ear, ‘Newgate-knocker style.’

1892.  T. M. Witham, Figure-skating, in Skating (Badm. Libr.), lii. 45. Dry cracks which are very dangerous to the *figure-skater, as if, when going at a high velocity on one foot, his skate drops into one of these cracks a severe fall is certain.

1852.  H. Spencer, Gracefulness, Ess. 1891, II. 384. All early attempts, and especially the first timid experiments in *figure-skating, are alike awkward and fatiguing.

1892.  T. M. Witham, Figure-skating, in Skating (Badm. Libr.), iii. 57. There is afigure-skating club belonging to the rink, the members of which are mostly English, and here good skating may be seen.

1805.  R. Jameson, Char. Min., II. 604. It is brought from China, and has received the name *Figure-stone.

1852.  L. Oliphant, Journey to Katmandu, 174. Amongst other minerals are corundum, figure-stone, and talc.