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To soften, in a figurative sense; to allay, mitigate, ease, or lessen, as heat, pain, or grief; to appease or pacify, as passion or tumult; to satisfy, as appetite or desire. Refreshing winds the summer's heat assuage. Addison. To assuage the sorrows of a desolate old man Burke. The fount at which the panting mind assu…

The figure of a star, thus,

Out of the right, either in a literal or in a figurative sense; wandering; as, to lead one astray. Ye were as sheep going astray. 1 Pet. ii. 25.

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.

To connect, in a figurative sense; to ascribe or attribute; to affix; -- with to; as, to attach great importance to a particular circumstance. Top this treasure a curse is attached. Bayard Taylor.

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.

Hence: Exceedingly filthy or corrupt. Augean stable (Fig.), an accumulation of corruption or filth almost beyond the power of man to remedy.

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.

To cease to sleep; to come out of a state of natural sleep; and, figuratively, out of a state resembling sleep, as inaction or death. The national spirit again awoke. Freeman. Awake to righteousness, and sin not. 1 Cor. xv. 34.

Rousing from sleep, in a natural or a figurative sense; rousing into activity; exciting; as, the awakening city; an awakening discourse; the awakening dawn. -- A*wak"en*ing*ly, adv.

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 river or channel while the current or tide carries the vessel against the wind. Hence: (Fig.) To take opposite positions alternately; to assert and deny. [Colloq.] -- To back out, To back down, to retreat or withdraw from a promise, engagement, or contest; to recede. [Colloq.] Cleon at first . . . was willing to go;…

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.