figure

noun

1. A drawing or diagram conveying information.

   “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.”

2. The representation of any form, as by drawing, painting, modelling, carving, embroidering, etc.; especially, a representation of the human body.

   “a figure in bronze; a figure cut in marble”

   “a coin that bears the figure of an angel”

   “Ever since I was a young’n and my dad gave me a Godzilla figure, I’ve been a huge fan of the big green lizard from the Land of the Rising Sun.”

3. A person or thing representing a certain consciousness.

   “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.”

4. The appearance or impression made by the conduct or career of a person.

   “He cut a sorry figure standing there in the rain.”

   “I made some figure there.”

   “gentlemen of the best figure in the county”

5. (obsolete)Distinguished appearance; magnificence; conspicuous representation; splendour; show.

   “that he may live in figure and indulgence”

6. A human figure, which dress or corset must fit to; the shape of a human body.

   “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.”

7. A numeral.
8. A number, an amount.

   “(i) 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;”

9. A shape.

   “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 arc of a circle may be very little, but, given that, it is possible to construct the entire figure.”

10. A visible pattern as in wood or cloth.

    “The muslin was of a pretty figure.”

11. Any complex dance moveᵂ.

    “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.”

12. A figure of speech.

    “to represent the imagination under the figure of a wing”

13. The form of a syllogism with respect to the relative position of the middle term.
14. A horoscope; the diagram of the aspects of the astrological houses.

    “its quality, like those of all the rest, is determined by its position in the house of the astrological figure”

15. Any short succession of notes, either as melody or as a group of chords, which produce a single complete and distinct impression.

    “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[…]”

16. A form of melody or accompaniment kept up through a strain or passage; a motif; a florid embellishment.

verb

1. (US)To calculate, to solve a mathematical problem.
2. (US)To come to understand.

   “I can’t figure if he’s telling the truth or lying.”

3. To think, to assume, to suppose, to reckon.

   “1. Gent. Thou art alwayes figuring diseases in me; but thou art full of error, I am sound.”

   ““I know you figure me for a leftneck fool, correct?””

4. (US, intransitive)To be reasonable or predictable.

   “It figures that somebody like him would be upset about the situation.”

5. (intransitive)To enter into; to be a part of.

   “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.”

6. (transitive)To represent in a picture or drawing.

   “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 (1843), although that was by no means the first figure published, for Lambert, Sprengel, and Sir W. Hooker had previously figured it.”

7. (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.

   “If love, alas! be pain; the pain I bear, / No thought can figure, and no tongue declare.”

8. To embellish with design; to adorn with figures.

   “The vaulty top of heaven / Figured quite o'er with burning meteors.”

9. (obsolete)To indicate by numerals.

   “1698 , John Dryden, Epitaph of Mary Frampton As through a crystal glass the figured hours are seen.”

10. To represent by a metaphor; to signify or symbolize.

    “whose white vestments figure innocence”

11. (obsolete)To prefigure; to foreshow.

    “His loftie browes in foldes, do figure death, And in their ſmoothneſſe, amitie and life:”

    “In this the heaven figures some event.”

12. To write over or under the bass, as figures or other characters, in order to indicate the accompanying chords.
13. To embellish.