Figure sb. World English Historical Dictionary

Figure sb. World English Historical Dictionary Dictionary Biographies Literary Criticism Welcome Terms of Service ⧏ Previous Next ⧐ Contents Slice Contents Key Bibliographic Record Murray’s New English Dictionary. 1901, rev. 2022. 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.

1   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.]

2   I.  Form, shape.

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

4 1393.  Gower, Conf., III. 52.        But yet it [a statue] was as in figure Most lich to mannes creature.

5 1477.  Earl Rivers (Caxton), Dictes, 141. A man that is in a derke kaue may not se his propre figure.

6 1535.  Coverdale, Ezek. x. 22. The figure of their faces was, euen as I had sene them, by the water Cobar.

7 1626.  Bacon, Sylva, § 221. The Figure of a Bell partaketh of the Pyramis.

8 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.

9 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.

10 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.

11 1830.  Kater & Lardn., Mech., i. 5. Bodies having very different volumes may have the same figure.

12 1878.  Huxley, Physiography, xix. 318. In addition to this change of size and of distinctness, the figure of the ship suffers a change.

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

14 1471.  Ripley, Comp. Alch., III. in Ashm. (1652), 141.        Distill it therefore till it be clene And thinne like water as it should be, As heauen in colour bright and shene, Keping both figure and ponderositee.

15 1690.  Locke, Hum. Und., II. xxxi. § 2. Solidity, and Extension, and the Termination of it, Figure.

16 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.

17 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.

18 1875.  Jowett, Plato (ed. 2), I. 275, Meno. Figure is the only thing that always follows colour.

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

20 1513.  Douglas, Æneis, V. xiii. 13.        The seis figur wes abhominable, And eik the fors tharof intollerable.

21 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.

22 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.

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

24 1858.  Carlyle, Fredk. Gt. (1865), I. III. iii. 150. As to Friedrich’s Pomeranian quarrel, this is the figure of it.

25   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.

26 1340.  Ayenb., 234. Ine þe rounde figure: þe ende went ayen to his ginninge.

27 1551.  Recorde, Pathw. Knowl., 1. Defin. Of figures there be manie sortes, for either thei be made of prickes, lines, or platte formes.

28 1570.  Bullingsley, Euclid, I. xv. 3. Of all figures a circle is the most perfect.

29 1603.  Holland, Plutarch’s Mor., 814. A Figure is the superficies, circumscription, and accomplished lineament of a bodie.

30 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.

31 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.

32 1823.  H. J. Brooke, Introd. Crystallogr., 137. The new figures would be octahedrons, more acute than the primary.

33 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.

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

35 a. 1300.  Cursor M., 22148 (Cott.).        O thinges sere þair naturs [anticrist sal do] Turnd to be in sere figurs.

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

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

38 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.

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

40 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.

41 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.

42 1611.  Bible, Isa. xliv. 13. The carpenter … maketh it after the figure of a man.

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

44 13[?].  E. E. Allit. P., A. 746. Quo formed þe þy fayre fygure?

45 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.

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

47 1637.  Nabbes, Microcosm., I. C ij.                        When other creatures Behold the earth, and with dejected eyes Look downwards on’t, [thou] hast an erected figure To see the stars, and contemplate their beings.

48 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.

49 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.

50 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.

51 1869.  Boutell, Arms & Arm., vii. 109. This hauberk was adjusted to the figure by a belt.

52 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.

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

54 1715–20.  Pope, Iliad, IX. 71.        Wise Nestor then his reverend figure rear’d; He spoke: the host in still attention heard.     Ibid. (1728), The Dunciad, II. 62. So lab’ring on, with shoulders, hands, and head, Wide as a wind-mill all his figure spread.

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

56 c. 1250.  Gen. & Ex., 1005.        Siðen, in ðe dale of mambre, saȝ abraham figures ðre.

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

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

59 1602.  Shaks., Ham., I. i. 109.        Well may it sort that this portentous figure Comes armed through our watch, so like the king That was and is the question of these wars.

60 1673.  Dryden, Marriage à la Mode, III. i. Phil. Figure: As, what a figure of a man is there! Naive, and naiveté.

61 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.

62 1754.  Richardson, Grandison, IV. xxi. 153. She is a very fine figure of a woman.

63 1768.  Sterne, Sent. Journ. (1782), II. 81. A tall figure, of a philosophic, serious, adust look.

64 1877.  Rita, Vivienne, I. iv. He saw a figure leaning against the embrasure of one of the windows.

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

66 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.

67 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.

68 1813.  Lady Burghersh, in Lett. (1893), 61. Words can’t describe the figures the women dress here of a morning.

69 1840.  Mrs. F. Trollope, Widow Married, vii. What on earth can have induced you to make such a figure of yourself?

70 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.

71 1886.  Burton, Arab. Nts., I. 82. Each of them is a figure o’ fun after his own fashion.

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

73 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.

74 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.

75 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.

76 1888.  Bryce, Amer. Commw., II. liii. 327–8. 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.

77 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.

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

78   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.

79 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.

80 1710.  Steele, Tatler, No. 57, 20 Aug., ¶ 1. To understand among what Sort of Men we make the best Figure.

81 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.

82 1766.  Goldsm., Vic. W., x. When Moses has trimmed them a little, they will cut a very tolerable figure.

83 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.

84 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.

85 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.

86   b.  To appear in a ridiculous aspect.

87 1726.  Adv. Capt. R. Boyle, 212. It was as much as I could do to keep my Countenance at the Figure he made.

88 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.

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

90 1691.  J. Wilson, Belphegor, V. i. Dram. Wks. (1874), 368. Fies. And what figure do you make in this house?

91 1697.  Dryden, Æneid, II. 116.        While Fortune favour’d, while his arms support The cause, and rul’d the Counsels of the Court, I made some figure there.

92 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.

93 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.

94 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.

95 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.

96 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.

97 1824.  W. Irving, T. Trav., I. 187. If they did not make much figure in talking, they did in eating.

98 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.

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

100 1692.  Dryden, St. Evremont’s Ess., 192. Persons of the greatest Figure make every thing valued according to their Fancy.

101 1703.  Maundrell, Journ. Jerus. (1732), 44. Another River, of no inconsiderable figure.

102 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.

103 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.

104 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.

105 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.

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

107 1602.  Ld. Cromwell (1613), III. iii. 2.        And as our bountie now exceedes the figure Of common entertainment: so doe you With lookes as free as is your Maisters soule, Giue formall welcome to the thronged tables.

108 1720.  De Foe, Capt. Singleton, xx. (1840), 342. He obliged her not to increase her figure, but live private.

109 1807.  Fielding’s Tom Jones, I. Life, 11. Fond of figure and magnificence, he incumbered himself with a large retinue.

110 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.

111   II.  Represented form; image, likeness.

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

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

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

115 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.

116 1531.  Elyot, The Boke Named the Gouernour, I. xxvi. There is nat a more playne figure of idlenesse, than playinge at dise.

117 1608.  Shaks., Per., V. iii. 92.        In Helicanus may you well descry A figure of truth, of faith, of loyalty.

118 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.

119 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.

120 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.

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

122 c. 1384.  Chaucer, H. Fame, I. 43.        Or yf the soule, or propre kynde, Be so parfit as men fynde, That yt forwote that ys to come, And that hyt worneth al and some Of everyche of her aventures, Be avisions, or be figures.

123 1598.  Shaks., Merry W., IV. ii. 231. If it be but to scrape the figures out of your husbands braines.

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

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

126   † 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.

127 a. 1300.  Cursor M., 2290 (Cott.).        Lik til his fader þat was ded A wygur was mad wit his red.

128 a. 1300.  E. E. Psalter, xcvi[i]. 7.        Alle schente be Þat bidden graves als, Þat mirthen in þar vigours [in simulacris] als.

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

130 1483.  Caxton, Cato, A iij b. To adoure the ymages and other fygures humayn.

131 1535.  Lyndesay, Ane Satyre of the Thrie Estaits, 4087, stage direction. Heir sal Dissait be drawin vp, or ellis his figure.

132 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.

133 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.

134 1697.  Dryden, Virg. Georg., II. 643.        No Palace, with a lofty Gate, he wants, T’admit the Tydes of early Visitants, With eager Eyes devouring, as they pass, The breathing Figures of Corinthian Brass.

135 1717.  Lady M. W. Montagu, Lett., II. xlvi. 35. All the figures have their heads on.

136 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.

137 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.

138   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.

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

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

141 1676.  North’s Plutarch, Add. Lives, 75. His Cabinet, furnished with many Pourtraitures and Figures of those who had been Travellers.

142 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.

143 1705.  Addison, Italy, 13. Hung with Tapestry, in which are wrought the Figures of the great Persons that the Family has produced.

144 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.

145 1832.  G. Downes, Letters from Continental Countries, I. 14. On the front are the figures of his wife and child.

146   c.  Her. (Cf. F. figure the face.)

147 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.

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

149 1610.  Shaks., Temp., III. iii. 83.          Pro.  Brauely the figure of this Harpie, hast thou Perform’d (my Ariell) a grace it had deuouring.

150 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!

151 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.

152 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.

153 1724.  De Foe, Mem. Cavalier (1840), 113. Your majesty, said I, shall be always served by me in any figure you please.

154   † b.  One acting a part. Obs. rare.

155 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.

156   † c.  A person dressed in character. Obs.

157 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.

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

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

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

161 c. 1450.  Life of St. Cuthbert (Surtees), 697.        Þe ship þat beres vs in þe se, Of haly kyrke þe figure be.

162 1497.  Bp. Alcock, Mons Perfect., A ij. This mount is in fygure & sygnyfyeth Relygyon.

163 1532.  More, Confut. Tindale, Wks. 385/1. Al thing vnto them came in figures.

164 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.

165 1637.  Nabbes, Microcosm., I. C.          Nat.  Oh gentle power Thou that art Natures soule, and the beginning Of every humane thing: that giv’st them lawes, And to thy selfe art law. Figure of peace.

166 1647.  Saltmarsh, Sparkles of Glory (1847), 149. A rest or peace in figure to that glory and fulness to be revealed in us.

167 1651.  C. Cartwright, Certamen Religiosum, I. 122. The Rock signified Christ, was a Type and a Figure of Christ.

168 1730–6.  in Bailey (folio).

169 1855.  Macaulay, Hist. Eng., IV. 453. It has long been usual to represent the imagination under the figure of a wing.

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

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

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

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

174 1545.  Raynold, Byrth Mankynde (1564), B ij. Not onely in wordes, but also in liuely and expresse fygures.

175 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.

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

177 1703.  Moxon, Mech. Exerc., 173. As you see in the Figure at b.

178 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.

179 1851.  P. L. Simmonds (title), Ure’s Cotton Manufacture … in two volumes with one hundred and fifty original figures.

180 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.

181   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.

182 1393.  Gower, Conf., III. 79.        Though he upon the creatures Through his carectes and figures The maistry and the power hadde, His creator to nought him ladde.

183 1610.  B. Jonson, Alch., IV. iv. By erection of her figure, I gest it.

184 1651.  trans. Bacon’s Life & Death, 1. The Figures of Heaven, under which they were borne.

185 1678.  Butler, Hud., III. i. 455. He set a Figure to discover    If you were fled to Rye or Dover.

186 1716.  Addison, Drummer, II. i. I fancy they are casting a Figure.

187 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.

188   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.

189 1597.  Shaks., Lovers Compl., 15.        Oft did she heave her napkin to her eyne, Which on it had conceited characters, Laundering the silken figures in the brine.

190 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.

191 1637.  Milton, Lycidas, 105.                    His bonnet sedge, Inwrought with figures dim.

192 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.

193 1833.  Ht. Martineau, Loom & Lugger, II. vi. 118. A beautiful figure that velvet has, to be sure.

194 1855.  Tennyson, Brook, 103.        And sketching with her slender pointed foot Some figure like a wizard pentagram On garden gravel.

195 1860.  Tyndall, Glac., II. i. 232. The luminous figure reflected from such a surface is exceedingly beautiful.

196   transf.  1667.  Milton, P. L., VII. 425.        Part loosly wing the Region, part more wise In common, rang’d in figure wedge thir way, Intelligent of seasons.

197 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.

198   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.

199 1636.  Massinger, Gt. Dk. Florence, IV. i.                        Keep your figure fair, And follow but the sample I shall set you.

200 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.

201 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.

202 1874.  Mrs. H. Wood, Mast. Greylands, I. 84. Such was the commencement of the figure.

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

204 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.

205   IV.  A written character. Cf. 15.

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

207 1597.  Morley, Introd. Mus., Annot. Figures in time shorter than minimes cannot be tied or enter in ligature.

208 1607.  Shaks., Timon, V. i. 157.        Shall … write in thee the figures of their loue, Euer to read them thine.     Ibid., V. iii. 7.             The Charracter Ile take with wax, Our Captaine hath in euery Figure skill.

209 1609.  Douland, Ornith. Microl., 39. A Breefe is a Figure, which hath a body foure-square, and wants a tayle [symbol].

210 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.

211   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.

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

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

214 c. 1305.  Edmund Conf., 223, in E. E. P. (1862), 77.        Arsmetrike radde in cours: in Oxenford wel fast & his figours drouȝ aldai.

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

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

217 1542.  Recorde, Gr. Artes (1575), 42. There are but ten Figures, that are vsed in Arithmetike.

218 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).

219 1674.  Playford, Skill Mus., I. xi. 36. The Figures usually placed over Notes in the Thorough-Bass of Songs or Ayres.

220 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?

221 1817.  Tierney, in Parl. Deb., 1357. A triumphant answer to them might be expected from the noble lord; but he could not disprove figures.

222 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.

223 1884.  Lillywhite’s Cricket Ann., 64. Lancashire could not reach three figures either time.

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

225 1604.  Marston, Malcontent, IV. ii. [The brawl] Why, ’tis but singles on the left, two on the right … a figure of eight.

226 1815.  Kirby & Sp., Entomol., I. 196. The figure-of-eight-moth (Bombyx cæruleocephala, F.).

227 1871.  Holmes, Syst. Surg. (ed. 2), V. 508. The figure of eight bandage is formed of a single continuous roller.

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

229 1872.  O. W. Holmes, Poet Breakf.-t., i. (1B85), 10. Rabbits are entrapped in ‘figgery fours.’

230 1889.  Farmer, Americanisms, Figure Four, a hunter’s trap for large game. Also called a dead-fall.

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

232 1842.  Punch, II. 118/2. He may put a better dessert upon his table at a lighter figure than now.

233 1848.  Thackeray, Bk. Snobs, x. Accommodating a youngster, who had just entered the regiment, with a glandered charger at an uncommonly stiff figure.

234 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.

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

236   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.

237 c. 1386.  Chaucer, Clerk’s Prol., 16.          Tell us som mery thing of aventures, Your termes, your coloures, and your figures, Kepe hem in store, til so be ye endite Hie stile, as when that men to kinges write.

238 1589.  Puttenham, Eng. Poesie, III. vii. (Arb.), 166. Figures be the instruments of ornament in euery language.

239 1596.  Harington, Metam. Ajax (1814), 11. And minding to speak it shorter, by the figure of abbreviation.

240 1609.  Bible (Douay), Ps. cxiii. Comm. By the figure Apostrophe he speaketh to the sea, river, and hilles.

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

242 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.

243 1766.  Chesterf., Lett., 188. The Egotism is the usuall and favourite figure of most people’s Rhetorick.

244 1824.  L. Murray, Eng. Gram. (ed. 5), I. 486. Figures of Speech imply some departure from simplicity of expression.

245 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.

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

247 1435.  Misyn, Fire of Love, 3. Þe flaume, whilk vndyr fygure I cald fyer.

248 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.

249 1611.  Bible, 1 Cor. iv. 6. These things, brethren, I haue in a figure transferred to my selfe, and to Apollo, for your sakes.

250 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.

251 1782.  Priestley, Corrupt. Chr., I. II. 156. [These] expressions, which have much the air of figure and allusion.

252 1855.  Brimley, Ess., 44. Simile and figure may be regarded as a natural short hand.

253 1875.  Jowett, Plato (ed. 2), III. 96, The Republic, Introduction. The old Pythagorean ethical symbols still exist as figures of speech among ourselves.

254   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.

255 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.

256 1721–1800.  in Bailey.

257   23.  Logic. (See quot. 1837–8.)

258 1551.  Wilson, Logike (1567), 286. Examples of the firste figure and the modes thereof.

259 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.

260 1628.  T. Spencer, Logick, 258. Aristotle delivers the forme of Syllogismes … and divides them into three figures.

261 1663.  Evelyn, Mem. (1857), III. 141. A Reverend Father … has put Mr. Cressy’s rhapsody into mode and figure.

262 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.

263 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.

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

265 1884.  R. Prentice, Musician, III. 29. The first Invention is founded entirely on the opening eight-note figure.

266   VI.  attrib. and Comb.

267   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.

268 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.

269 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.

270 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.

271 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.

272 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.

273 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.

274 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.

275 1877.  W. Jones, Finger-ring, 374. An ivory patch-box, with *figure-subject carved in relief.

276 1871.  (title) *Figure Training.

277 1831.  G. R. Porter, Silk Manuf., 234. *Figure-weaving is the art of producing various patterns in the cloth.

278   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.

279 1850.  J. H. Newman, Diffic. Anglic., 205. Operatives, journeymen, *figure-servants, and labourers.

280 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.’

281 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.

282 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.

283 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.

284 1805.  R. Jameson, Char. Min., II. 604. It is brought from China, and has received the name *Figure-stone.

285 1852.  L. Oliphant, Journey to Katmandu, 174. Amongst other minerals are corundum, figure-stone, and talc.

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