figure

English

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figure

Wikipedia

Etymology

From Middle English figure, borrowed from Old French figure, from Latin figūra (“form, shape, form of a word, a figure of speech, Late Latin a sketch, drawing”), from fingō (“to form, shape, mold, fashion”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰeyǵʰ- (“to mold, shape, form, knead”). Cognate with Ancient Greek τεῖχος (teîkhos), Sanskrit देग्धि (degdhi), Old English dāg (“dough”). More at dough. Doublet of figura.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈfɪɡə/
• (US, Canada) IPA^(key): /ˈfɪɡjɚ/, /ˈfɪɡɚ/
  • (Ottawa Valley) IPA^(key): /ˈfɪɡɪu̯ɹ/

• Audio (GA)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪɡə(ɹ), -ɪɡjə(ɹ)
• Hyphenation: fig‧ure

Noun

figure (plural figures)

1. A drawing or diagram conveying information.
   • 2004, Joshua Tree National Park 2004 Visitor Study:

     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

   • c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

     a coin that bears the figure of an angel

3. A person or thing representing a certain consciousness.
   • 2013 June 28, Joris Luyendijk, “Our banks are out of control”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 3, page 21:

     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.

   • 1697, Virgil, “(please specify the book number)”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. , London: Jacob Tonson, , →OCLC:

     I made some figure there.

   • 1765–1769, William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England, (please specify |book=I to IV), Oxford, Oxfordshire: Clarendon Press, →OCLC:

     gentlemen of the best figure in the county

5. (obsolete) Distinguished appearance; magnificence; conspicuous representation; splendour; show.
   • 1729, William Law, A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life:

     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.
   • 1919, B. G. Jefferis, J. L. Nichols, Searchlights on Health:

     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.

   • 1966, James Workman, The Mad Emperor, Melbourne, Sydney: Scripts, page 53:

     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.
   • 1996, David Irving v. Penguin Books and Deborah Lipstadt:

     (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

   • 1631, Francis [Bacon], “(please specify |century=I to X)”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. , 3rd edition, London: William Rawley; rinted by J H for William Lee , →OCLC:

     Flowers have all exquisite figures.

   • 1908, Algernon Blackwood, John Silence, Physician Extraordinary:

     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.

10. A visible pattern as in wood or cloth.

    The muslin was of a pretty figure.

11. Any complex dance move^W.
    • 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter V, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:

      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.
    • 1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter 20, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volumes (please specify |volume=I to V), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC:

      to represent the imagination under the figure of a wing

13. (logic) The form of a syllogism with respect to the relative position of the middle term.
14. (astrology) A horoscope; the diagram of the aspects of the astrological houses.
    • 1889, Franz Hartmann, The Principles of Astrological Geomancy:

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

15. (music) Any short succession of notes, either as melody or as a group of chords, which produce a single complete and distinct impression.
    • 1888, George Grove, Beethoven's Nine Symphonies: Analytical Essays:

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

Derived terms

Related terms

• figurine
• figurative
• figuratively

Descendants

• → Japanese: フィギュア (figyua)

Translations

Verb

figure (third-person singular simple present figures, present participle figuring, simple past and past participle figured)

1. (chiefly US) To calculate, to solve a mathematical problem.
2. (chiefly 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.
   • c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Measure for Measure”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

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

   • 2023, John B. Wright, Fire Scars:

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

4. (chiefly 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.
   • 1959 November, J. N. Westwood, “The Railways of Canada”, in Trains Illustrated, page 554:

     It is the transcontinental trains which figure most prominently in railway advertising. Both railways run two trains in each direction.

   • 2005, Paul Beckerman, Andean Exchange-rate Regimes, 1994-2003:

     The exchange rate figures heavily in several other aspects of Venezuela's economy.

6. (transitive) To represent in a picture or drawing.
   • 1884 August 16, X. Y. Z., “Brazilian or Maté Tea”, in The Gardeners’ Magazine, volume 27 (New Series), number 1,007, page 451:

     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.
   • 1709, Matthew Prior, “Henry and Emma. ”, in The Poetical Works of Matthew Prior , volume I, London: W Strahan, , published 1779, →OCLC, page 245:

     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.
   • c. 1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Iohn”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

     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.
    • c. 1596–1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Fourth, ”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

      whose white vestments figure innocence

11. (obsolete) To prefigure; to foreshow.
    • c. 1587–1588, [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. The First Part , 2nd edition, part 1, London: Richard Iones, , published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire, London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act II, scene i:

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

    • c. 1591–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Third Part of Henry the Sixt, ”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

      In this the heaven figures some event.

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

Derived terms

• go figure
• prefigure
• figure on
• figure out (US)

Translations

Further reading

• “figure”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “figure”, in The Century Dictionary , New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin figūra.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fi.ɡyʁ/

• audio

  (file)

Noun

figure f (plural figures)

1. face
2. figure

Synonyms

• visage

Derived terms

Further reading

• “figure”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé , 2012.

Italian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fiˈɡu.re/
• Rhymes: -ure
• Hyphenation: fi‧gù‧re

Noun

figure f

1. plural of figura

Middle English

Alternative forms

• fygure, fegure, fugure, vigure

Etymology

From Old French figure, from Latin figūra.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈfiɡiu̯r(ə)/

Noun

figure (plural figures)

1. shape, form, appearance

Descendants

• English: figure
• Yola: vigere

References

• “figūre, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

Portuguese

Verb

figure

1. inflection of figurar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative

Spanish

Verb

figure

1. inflection of figurar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative