subs. (colloquial).—1. Appearance; conduct; e.g., TO CUT A GOOD or BAD FIGURE, A MEAN FIGURE, SORRY FIGURE, etc.
1712. Spectator, No. 479. Men cannot, indeed, make a sillier FIGURE, than in repeating such pleasures and pains to the rest of the world.
1854. WHYTE-MELVILLE, General Bounce, ch. xvii. Peradventure our youth is fast, and aspires to be a man of FIGURE.
2. (colloquial).—Price; value; amount.
1848. THACKERAY, The Book of Snobs, ch. x. Accommodating a youngster, who just entered the regiment, with a glandered charger at an uncommonly stiff FIGURE.
1864. London Society, Oct., p. 480. She had saved … about four hundred a year out of the wreck … and so, on the whole, did not do badly in life. Happiness has been found at even a lower ‘FIGURE.’
1883. G. A. SALA, Living London, p. 184. The ‘FIGURE’ to be paid to Madame Adelina Patti for her forthcoming season.
1886. Cornhill Magazine, March, p. 304. ‘About what is their FIGURE?’ asked Mr. Corder. ‘Slim and graceful,’ answered the lady. ‘I don’t mean that,’ said the ex-smoked-mother-of-pearl-button manufacturer; ‘I mean, what is each of them worth in money?’
3. (colloquial).—Paps and posteriors; said only of women. NO FIGURE = wanting in both particulars.
Verb (billiards’).—To single out; to SPOT (q.v.).
[FIGURE, like FETCH, comes in for a good deal of hard work in America. It is colloquially equivalent to ‘count upon’; as, ‘you may FIGURE on getting a reply by return mail’; also = to strive for. TO FIGURE ON [A THING] = to think it over; TO FIGURE OUT = to estimate; TO FIGURE UP = to add up; TO CUT A FIGURE, see CUT; TO GO THE WHOLE FIGURE = to be thorough; TO GO THE BIG FIGURE = to launch out; TO MISS A FIGURE = to make a mistake.]
