Emily Dickinson Lexicon

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.