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Webster’s Dictionary (1828)



328 words match “FIGURATIVE”

ROD n. 2 definitions
An instrument of punishment or correction; figuratively, chastisement. He that spareth his rod hateth his son. Prov. xiii. 24.
ROOF v.
To inclose in a house; figuratively, to shelter. Here had we now our country's honor roofed. Shak.
ROOFING n.
Hence, the roof itself; figuratively, shelter. "Fit roofing gave." Southey.
ROT v.
Figuratively: To perish slowly; to decay; to die; to become corrupt. Four of the sufferers were left to rot in irons. Macaulay. Rot, poor bachelor, in your club. Thackeray.
ROUGH a.
Hence, figuratively, lacking refinement, gentleness, or polish. Specifically:
ROUGH-GRAINED a.
Having a rough grain or fiber; hence, figuratively, having coarse traits of character; not polished; brisque.
RUN v.
estate. -- To run to seed, to expend or exhaust vitality in producing seed, as a plant; figuratively and colloquially, to cease growing; to lose vital force, as the body or mind. -- To run up, to rise; to swell; to grow; to increase; as, accounts of goods credited run up very fast. But these, having been untrimmed f…
RUT n.
by a wheel or by habitual passage of anything; a groove in which anything runs. Also used figuratively. in a rut.
SALIENT a.
Hence, figuratively, forcing itself on the attention; prominent; conspicuous; noticeable. He [Grenville] had neither salient traits, nor general comprehensiveness of mind. Bancroft.
SANDWICH v.
To make into a sandwich; also, figuratively, to insert between portions of something dissimilar; to form of alternate parts or things, or alternating layers of a different nature; to interlard.
SAW v.
Also used figuratively; as, to saw the air.
SCALE n.
d in the plural when applied to the whole instrument or apparatus for weighing. Also used figuratively. Long time in even scale The battle hung. Milton. The scales are turned; her kindness weighs no more Now than my vows. Waller.
SCHOOL n.
Figuratively, any means of knowledge or discipline; as, the school of experience. Boarding school, Common school, District school, Normal school, etc. See under Boarding, Common, District, etc. -- High school, a free public school nearest the rank of a college. [U.S.] -- School board, a corporation established by law…
SCUM v.
To form a scum; to become covered with scum. Also used figuratively. Life, and the interest of life, have stagnated and scummed over. A. K. H. Boyd.
SCUMBLING n.
The color so laid on. Also used figuratively. Shining above the brown scumbling of leafless orchards. L. Wallace.
SEAR v.
ture of the surface; to scorch; to make callous; as, to sear the skin or flesh. Also used figuratively. I'm seared with burning steel. Rowe. It was in vain that the amiable divine tried to give salutary pain to that seared conscience. Macaulay. The discipline of war, being a discipline in destruction of life, is a disc…
SEARED a.
Scorched; cauterized; hence, figuratively, insensible; not susceptible to moral influences. A seared conscience and a remorseless heart. Macaulay.
SEE v.
Figuratively: To have intellectual apprehension; to perceive; to know; to understand; to discern; -- often followed by a preposition, as through, or into. For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind. John ix. 39. Many sagacious persons will find…
SET n.
ing; a determined onset. -- To make a dead set, to make a determined onset, literally or figuratively.
SHACKLE v.
Figuratively: To bind or confine so as to prevent or embarrass action; to impede; to cumber. Shackled by her devotion to the king, she seldom could pursue that object. Walpole.
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