figure

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.

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. 2004, Joshua Tree National Park 2004 Visitor Study
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
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. 2013-06-28, Joris Luyendijk, “Our banks are out of control”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 3, page 21
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.
5. (obsolete) Distinguished appearance; magnificence; conspicuous representation; splendour; show.
   that he may live in figure and indulgence 1729, William Law, A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life
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. 1919, B. G. Jefferis, J. L. Nichols, Searchlights on Health
   She was cunningly dressed in a black, sheer gown with gold ornaments showing her figure to perfection. 1966, James Workman, The Mad Emperor, Melbourne, Sydney: Scripts, page 53
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; 1996, David Irving v. Penguin Books and Deborah Lipstadt
9. A shape.
   a geometrical figure, a plane figure, a solid figure
   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. 1908, Algernon Blackwood, John Silence, Physician Extraordinary
10. A visible pattern as in wood or cloth.
    The muslin was of a pretty figure.
11. Any complex dance moveᵂ.
12. A figure of speech.
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.
    its quality, like those of all the rest, is determined by its position in the house of the astrological figure 1889, Franz Hartmann, The Principles of Astrological Geomancy
15. (music) 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[…] 1888, George Grove, Beethoven's Nine Symphonies: Analytical Essays
16. (music) A form of melody or accompaniment kept up through a strain or passage; a motif; a florid embellishment.

verb

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.
   I know you figure me for a leftneck fool, correct? 2023, John B. Wright, Fire Scars
4. (chiefly US, intransitive) To be reasonable.
   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. 1959 November, J. N. Westwood, “The Railways of Canada”, in Trains Illustrated, page 554
   The exchange rate figures heavily in several other aspects of Venezuela's economy. 2005, Paul Beckerman, Andean Exchange-rate Regimes, 1994-2003
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. 1884-08-16, X. Y. Z., “Brazilian or Maté Tea”, in The Gardeners’ Magazine, volume 27 (New Series), number 1,007, page 451
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.
8. To embellish with design; to adorn with figures.
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.
11. (obsolete) To prefigure; to foreshow.
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.