Search the Dictionary

The ensigns armorial of a family, consisting of figures and colors borne in shields, banners, etc., as marks of dignity and distinction, and descending from father to son.

Tapestry; a rich figured fabric; especially, a screen or hangings of heavy cloth with interwoven figures. Stateliest couches, with rich arras spread. Cowper. Behind the arras I'll convey myself. Shak.

A material of wool or silk used for working the figures in embroidery.

The figure of a star, thus,

A figure which omits the connective; as, I came, I saw, I conquered. It stands opposed to polysyndeton.

Figures or half figures of men, used as columns to support an entablature; -- called also telamones. See Caryatides. Oxf. Gloss.

The posture, action, or disposition of a figure or a statue.

me affected attitudes; to strike an attitude; to pose. Maria, who is the most picturesque figure, was put to attitudinize at the harp. Hannah More.

A conventional symbol of office, character, or identity, added to any particular figure; as, a club is the attribute of Hercules.

To figure or variegate. [Obs.] Spenser.

The circle of rays, or halo of light, with which painters surround the figure and represent the glory of Christ, saints, and others held in special reverence.

A figure by which a grave and magnificent word is put for the proper word; amplification; hyperbole.

n, and the plane a solid of revolution. -- Axis of symmetry (Geom.), any line in a plane figure which divides the figure into two such parts that one part, when folded over along the axis, shall coincide with the other part. -- Axis of the equator, ecliptic, horizon (or other circle considered with reference to the s…

Pertaining to, or resembling, an infant; young or little; as, baby swans. "Baby figure" Shak.

A board worn across the back to give erectness to the figure. Thackeray.

The space which is behind and subordinate to a portrait or group of figures.

The outline inclosing words represented as coming from the mouth of a pictured figure. Air balloon, a balloon for aërial navigation. -- Balloon frame (Carp.), a house frame constructed altogether of small timber. -- Balloon net, a variety of woven lace in which the weft threads are twisted in a peculiar manner around…

andkerchief, having a uniformly dyed ground, usually of red or blue, with white or yellow figures of a circular, lozenge, or other simple form.

An idol or symbolical figure which the Templars were accused of using in their mysterious rites.

Low relief; sculpture, the figures of which project less than half of their true proportions; -- called also bassrelief and basso- rilievo. See Alto-rilievo.