Crossword clues for figurative
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Figurate \Fig"ur*ate\, a. [L. figuratus, p. p. of figurare. See Figure.]
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Of a definite form or figure.
Plants are all figurate and determinate, which inanimate bodies are not.
--Bacon. Figurative; metaphorical. [Obs.]
--Bale.-
(Mus.) Florid; figurative; involving passing discords by the freer melodic movement of one or more parts or voices in the harmony; as, figurate counterpoint or descant.
Figurate counterpoint or Figurate descant (Mus.), that which is not simple, or in which the parts do not move together tone for tone, but in which freer movement of one or more parts mingles passing discords with the harmony; -- called also figural, figurative, and figured counterpoint or descant (although the term figured is more commonly applied to a bass with numerals written above or below to indicate the other notes of the harmony).
Figurate numbers (Math.), numbers, or series of numbers, formed from any arithmetical progression in which the first term is a unit, and the difference a whole number, by taking the first term, and the sums of the first two, first three, first four, etc., as the successive terms of a new series, from which another may be formed in the same manner, and so on, the numbers in the resulting series being such that points representing them are capable of symmetrical arrangement in different geometrical figures, as triangles, squares, pentagons, etc.
Note: In the following example, the two lower lines are composed of figurate numbers, those in the second line being triangular, and represented thus: . 1, 2, 3, 4, etc. . . . 1, 3, 6, 10, etc. . . . . . . . etc. 1, 4, 10, 20, etc . . . . . . . . . . . .
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
late 14c., "emblematical," from Old French figuratif "metaphorical," from Late Latin figurativus "figurative" (of speech), from figurat-, past participle stem of Latin figurare "to form, shape," from figura "a shape, form, figure" (see figure (n.)). Of speech, language, etc., "allegorical, metaphoric, involving figures of speech," from late 14c. Related: Figuratively.
Wiktionary
a. 1 metaphorical or tropical, as opposed to literal; using figures; as of the use of "cats and dogs" in the phrase "It's raining cats and dogs". 2 Metaphorically so called 3 With many figures of speech 4 emblematic; representative
WordNet
adj. (used of the meanings of words or text) not literal; using figures of speech; "figurative language" [syn: nonliteral] [ant: literal]
consisting of or forming human or animal figures; "a figural design"; "the figurative art of the humanistic tradition"- Herbert Read [syn: figural]
Wikipedia
Figurative may refer to:
- Figurative analogy, a comparison between things that are not alike but do share some common property
- Figurative art, representational artwork
- Literal and figurative language, a distinction within language analysis
- Neo-figurative art, an expressionist revival art movement
Usage examples of "figurative".
There seemed to be few, if any, abstract terms, or little use of figurative language.
I can turn that figurative blackboard as a scroll and see every message that it has recorded, even here on Earth.
CHAPTER XXVIII The Ironmaster Sir Leicester Dedlock has got the better, for the time being, of the family gout and is once more, in a literal no less than in a figurative point of view, upon his legs.
The figurative detail, the red-flowered skirts, the tinklers, combined with the size of the drum, give it an unusual sense of both power and sweetness.
The challenge was a figurative one and Webb knew it, but his combative fever was running high.
And into the same error fall those who suppose two supposita or hypostases in Christ, since it is impossible to understand how, of two things distinct in suppositum or hypostasis, one can be properly predicated of the other: unless merely by a figurative expression, inasmuch as they are united in something, as if we were to say that Peter is John because they are somehow mutually joined together.
Thirdly, there is a figurative metempsychosis, which may sometimes the history of mythology abounds in examples of the same sort of thing have been turned from an abstract metaphor into a concrete belief, or from a fanciful supposition have hardened into a received fact.
But this is an error arising from the misinterpretation of the figurative terms in which the Greek Fathers express themselves.
Theodosius, we are reduced to illustrate the partial narrative of Zosimus, by the obscure hints of fragments and chronicles, by the figurative style of poetry or panegyric, and by the precarious assistance of the ecclesiastical writers, who, in the heat of religious faction, are apt to despise the profane virtues of sincerity and moderation.
Thirdly, when the general idea of a hell has once obtained lodgment, it is rapidly nourished, developed, and ornamented, carried out into particulars by poets, rhetoricians, and popular teachers, whose fancies are stimulated and whose figurative views and pictures act and react both upon the sources and the products of faith.
The poets inspired by the Divinity, the wisest philosophers, all the theologians, the chiefs of the initiations and Mysteries, even the gods uttering their oracles, have borrowed the figurative language of allegory.
He truly felt for the young Mercurian, and not only because Buck Rogers had placed Kemal in his figurative hands before leaving to supervise Project Deepspace, a mission designed to probe the depths of the Solar System.
Since, therefore, the priesthood of the Old Law was a figure of the priesthood of Christ, He did not wish to be born of the stock of the figurative priests, that it might be made clear that His priesthood is not quite the same as theirs, but differs therefrom as truth from figure.
Passion put an end to the figurative sacraments, which were supplanted by Baptism and the other sacraments of the New Law.
My reluctant relationship with the Kappa Theta Etas had caused nothing but a series of headaches, of both the literal and figurative variety.