FIGURING • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Figuring

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/fˈɪgjərɪŋ/ Listen

verb

Figure v. t. (past & past part. figured; pres. part. figuring)

1.

To represent by a figure, as to form or mold; to make an image of, either palpable or ideal; also, to fashion into a determinate form; to shape. "If love, alas! be pain I bear," "No thought can figure, and no tongue declare.Prior."

2.

To embellish with design; to adorn with figures. "The vaulty top of heaven Figured quite o'er with burning meteors."

3.

To indicate by numerals; also, to compute. "As through a crystal glass the figured hours are seen."

4.

To represent by a metaphor; to signify or symbolize. "Whose white vestments figure innocence."

5.

To prefigure; to foreshow. "In this the heaven figures some event."

6.

(Mus.)

(a)

To write over or under the bass, as figures or other characters, in order to indicate the accompanying chords.

(b)

To embellish.

To figure out, to solve; to compute or find the result of.

To figure up, to add; to reckon; to compute the amount of.

Figure v. i.

1.

To make a figure; to be distinguished or conspicious; as, the envoy figured at court. "Sociable, hospitable, eloquent, admired, figuring away brilliantly."

2.

To calculate; to contrive; to scheme; as, he is figuring to secure the nomination. (Colloq.)

go figure a phrase used by itself as an interjection to mean "How can one explain that?", or to express puzzlement over some seeming contradiction. (Colloq.)

See images of 'Figuring'

Etymology of 'Figuring'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Figuring" Quotes from Famous Books

... immediate privilege to give sentence of life or death—to seem in ignorance of what every one else is full of—to be behind-hand with the polite, the knowing, and fashionable part of mankind—to be at a loss and dumb-founded, when all around us are in their glory, and figuring away, on no other ground than that of having read a work that we have not! Books that are to be written hereafter cannot be criticised by us; those that were written formerly have been criticised long ago; ...

— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, Vol. 10, Issue 267, August 4, 1827 • Various

... and mapped out the English play of "Henry the Fourth," taken from an old historical play, and was figuring on two comedies—"Midsummer Night's Dream" and the "Merry ...

— Shakspere, Personal Recollections • John A. Joyce

... transferred to the fostering care of the nymphs of Mount Nysa. An aged satyr named Silenus, the son of Pan, took upon himself the office of guardian and preceptor to the young god, who, in his turn, became much attached to his kind tutor; hence we see Silenus always figuring as one of the chief personages in the various expeditions of ...

— Myths and Legends of Ancient Greece and Rome • E.M. Berens

... to dress, Lanley was just in the act of drawing the last neat double lines for his balance. He had been delayed by the fact that Mrs. Wayne had been talking to him almost continuously since his return to figuring. She was in high spirits, for even saints are ...

— The Happiest Time of Their Lives • Alice Duer Miller

... another: your cousin Sophy bothers me to build an Elizabethan pigsty, and wanted her poor mother to dance with the butler in the servants' hall last Christmas, when the fellow was as drunk as an owl: I hope it mayn't end in her figuring off herself with the footman; for Sophy is rather a pet of mine, and a right-down English girl after all. But, Frank, if you can't read in peace in the library, you surely could have a room fitted up for yourself up stairs; and you shall ...

— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 56, Number 349, November, 1844 • Various

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