This, they will say, was figurative, and served, by
God's appointment, but for a time, to shadow out the
true glory of a more divine sanctity. --Hooker.
2. Used in a sense that is tropical, as a metaphor; not
literal; -- applied to words and expressions.
3. Abounding in figures of speech; flowery; florid; as, a
highly figurative description.
4. Relating to the representation of form or figure by
drawing, carving, etc. See {Figure}, n., 2.
They belonged to a nation dedicated to the
figurative arts, and they wrote for a public
familiar with painted form. --J. A.
Symonds.
{Figurative} {counterpoint or descant}. See under {Figurate}.
-- {Fig"ur*a*tive*ly}, adv. -- {Fig"ur*a*tive*ness}, n.
Plants are all figurate and determinate, which
inanimate bodies are not. --Bacon.
2. Figurative; metaphorical. [Obs.] --Bale.
3. (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 {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 . . . . . . . . . . . .