Emily Dickinson Lexicon

FIG'PECK-ER, n. [L. ficedula.]

A bird.

FIG'-TREE, n.

A tree of the genus Ficus, growing in warm climates. The receptacle is common, turbinated, carnous and connivent, inclosing the florets. The male calyx is tripartite; no corol; three stamens. The female calyx is a uniquepartite; no corol; one pistil; one seed. Encyc. To dwell under our vine and fig-tree, is to live in peace and safety. 1 Kings iv.

FIG'U-LATE, a. [L. figulo, to fashion, from fingo, or rather figo, which appears to be the root of fingo.]

Made of potters clay; molded; shaped. [Little used.]

FIG-U-RA-BIL'I-TY, n.

The quality of being capable of a certain fixed or stable form.

FIG'U-RA-BLE, a. [from figure.]

Capable of being brought to a certain fixed form or shape. Thus lead is figurable, but water is not. Bacon.

FIG'U-RAL, a.

Represented by figure or delineation; as, figural resemblances. Brown. Figural numbers, in geometry, such numbers as do or may represent some geometrical figure, in relation to which they are always considered, and are either lineary, superficial or solid. Harris.

FIG'U-RATE, a. [L. figuratus.]

1. Of a certain determinate form. Plants are all figurate and determinate, which inanimate bodies are not Bacon.
2. Resembling any thing of a determinate form; as, figurate stones, stones or fossils resembling shells.
3. Figurative. [Not used.] Figurate counterpoint, in music, that wherein there is a mixture of discord with concords. Harris. Figurate descant, that in which discords are concerned, though not so much as concords. It may be called the ornament or rhetorical part of music, containing all the varieties or points, figures, syncopes, and diversities of measure. Harris.

FIG'U-RA-TED, a.

Having a determinate form. Potter.

FIG'UR-ATE-LY, adv.

In a figurate manner.

FIG-U-RA'TION, n.

1. The act of giving figure or determinate form. Bacon.
2. Determination to a certain form. Bacon.
3. Mixture of concords and discords in music. Gregory.

FIG'U-RA-TIVE, a. [Fr. figuratif, from figure.]

1. Representing something else; representing, by resemblance; typical. This, they will say, was figurative, and served by God's appointment but for a time, to shadow out the true glory of a more divine sanctity. Hooker.
2. Representing by resemblance; not literal or direct. A figurative expression, is one in which the words are used in a sense different from that in which they are ordinarily used; as, Slander, / Whose edge is sharper than the sword. Shak.
3. Abounding with figures of speech; as, a description highly figurative.

FIG'U-RA-TIVE-LY, adv.

By a figure; in a manner to exhibit ideas by resemblance; in a sense different from that which words originally imply. Words are used figuratively, when they express something different from their usual meaning.

FIG'UR-A-TIVE-NESS, n.

State of being figurative.

FIG'URE, n. [fig'ur; Fr. figure; L. figura, from figo, to fix or set; W. fugyr, from fugiaw, to feign. See Feign.]

1. The form of any thing, as expressed by the outline or terminating extremities. Flowers have exquisite figures. A triangle is a figure of three sides. A square is a figure of four equal sides and equal angles.
2. Shape; form; person; as, a lady of elegant figure. A good figure, or person, in man or woman, gives credit at first sight to the choice of either. Richardson.
3. Distinguished appearance; eminence; distinction; remarkable character. Ames made a figure in Congress; Hamilton, in the cabinet.
4. Appearance of any kind; as, an ill figure; a mean figure.
5. Magnificence; splendor; as, to live in figure and indulgence. Law.
6. A statue; an image; that which is formed in resemblance of something else; as, the figure of a man in plaster.
7. Representation in painting; the lines and colors which represent an animal, particularly a person; as, the principal figures of a picture; a subordinate figure.
8. In manufactures, a design or representation wrought on damask, velvet, and other stuffs.
9. In logic, the order or disposition of the middle term in a syllogism with the parts of the question. Watts.
10. In arithmetic, a character denoting a number; as, 2, 7, 9.
11. In astrology, the horoscope; the diagram of the aspects of the astrological houses. Shak.
12. In theology, type; representative. Who was the figure of him that was to come. Rom. v.
13. In rhetoric, a mode of speaking or writing in which words are deflected from their ordinary signification, or a mode more beautiful and emphatical than the ordinary way of expressing the sense; the language of the imagination and passions; as, knowledge is the light of the mind; the soul mounts on the wings of faith; youth is the morning of life. In strictness, the change of a word is a trope, and any affection of a sentence a figure; but these terms are often confounded. Locke.
14. In grammar, any deviation from the rules of analogy or syntax.
15. In dancing, the several steps which the dancer makes in order and cadence, considered as they form certain figures on the floor.

FIG'URE, v.i.

To make a figure; to be distinguished. The envoy figured at the court of St. Cloud.

FIG'URE, v.t. [fig'ur.]

1. To form or mold into any determinate shape. Accept this goblet, rough with figured gold. Dryden.
2. To show by coporeal resemblance, as in picture or statuary.
3. To cover or adorn with figures or images; to mark with figures; to form figures in by art; as, to figure velvet or muslin.
4. To diversify; to variegate with adventitious forms of matter.
5. To represent by a typical or figurative resemblance. The matter of the sacraments figureth their end. Hooker.
6. To imagine; to image in the mind. Temple.
7. To prefigure; to foreshow. Shak.
8. To form figuratively; to use in a sense not literal; as, figured expressions. [Little used.] Locke.
9. To note by characters. As through a crystal glass the figured hours are seen. Dryden.
10. In music, to pass several notes for one; to form runnings or variations. Encyc.

FIG'URE-CAST-ER, or FIG'URE-FLING-ER, n.

A pretender to astrology. [Obs.]

FIG'UR-ED, a.

Adorned with figures.

FIG'UR-ED, pp.

1. Represented by resemblance; adorned with figures; formed into a determinate figure.
2. In music, free and florid.

FIG'URE-STONE, n.

A name of the agalmatolite, or bildstein.

FIG'UR-ING, n.

Act of making figures.

FIG'U-RING, ppr.

Forming into determinate shape; representing by types or resemblances; adorning with figures; making a distinguished appearance.

FIG-WORT, n.

A plant of the genus Scrophularia.

FI-LA'CEOUS, a. [L. filum, a thread; Fr. file; Sp. hilo.]

Composed or consisting of threads. Bacon.

FIL'A-CER, n. [Norm. filicer, from file, a thread or file, L. filum, Sp. hilo.]

An officer in the English court of common pleas, so called from filing the writs on which he makes process. There are fourteen of them in their several divisions and counties. They make out all original processes, real, personal and mixed. Harris.