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figure:


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Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
figure /ˈfɪgə/
noun
  • 1 a number or a numerical symbol.

    ■ an amount of money.

    ■ (figures) arithmetical calculations.

  • 2 a person of a particular kind: a public figure.

    ■ a person seen indistinctly.

    ■ an artistic representation of a human or animal form.

  • 3 a person's bodily shape, especially that of a woman.
  • 4 a shape defined by one or more lines in two dimensions, or one or more surfaces in three dimensions.

    ■ a diagram or illustrative drawing.

    ■ (in skating) a movement or series of movements following a prescribed pattern.

    ■ a pattern formed by the movements of a group of people, for example in country dancing, as part of a longer dance or display.

    archaic external form or shape.

  • 5 Music a short succession of notes producing a single impression.
  • 6 Logic the form of a syllogism, classified according to the position of the middle term.
verb
  • 1 be a significant part of or contributor to something.
  • 2 N. Amer. calculate arithmetically.
  • 3 informal, chiefly N. Amer. think; consider.

    ■ be perfectly understandable: she supposed that figured.

    ■ (figure someone/thing out) reach an understanding of someone or something.

  • 4 (figure on) N. Amer. informal expect (something) to happen or be the case.
  • 5 represent in a diagram or picture.

    ■ (usu. as adj. figured) embellish with a pattern.

– derivatives
figureless adjective.
– origin ME: from OFr. figure (n.), figurer (v.), from L. figura ‘figure, form’; rel. to fingere ‘form, contrive’.



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