a. Also 6 figurall(e. [a. OF. figural, ad. late L. *figūrālis (implied in figūrālitās), f. figūra FIGURE. sb.]
† 1. = FIGURATIVE 1, 4. Obs.
c. 1450. Henryson, Mor. Fab., 22.
| Now worthie folk suppose this bee a Fable, | |
| And ouerhailled with types figurall. |
c. 1555. Harpsfield, Divorce Hen. VIII. (1878), 142. Scripture is to be expounded four ways, by the historical, by the allegoricall or figurall, by the annagogicall, and by the tropologicall sense.
1621. W. Sclater, Tythes (1623), 82. Be it then that they had their cæremonies of order, yet if those also were shadowy and figurall, how helpes your distinction to contradict our proposition?
† 2. Arith. Of numbers: Representing some geometrical figure, such as a square, cube, etc.; consisting of factors. Cf. FIGURATE a. 3 a. Obs.
Figural arithmetic: in quot., the arithmetic of ‘figural’ numbers.
1551. Recorde, Pathw. Knowl., I. A iij b. Defin., Formes [sc. produced by arrangements of points in rows]. And so maie there be infinite formes more, whiche I omitte for this time, considering that their knowledg appertaineth more to Arithmetike figurall, than to Geometrie. Ibid. (1557), Whetst., A ij b. Many nombers are referred to some figure…. So if I saie that .16. is a square nomber, bicause it is made of .4. multiplied by .4. then is .16. here to be called a figuralle nomber.
1674. Jeake, A Compleat Body of Arithmetick (1696), 173, chapter title. Of Figurals.
1704. in Harris, Lex. Techn.
quasi-sb.
1696. Lond. Gaz., No. 3183/4. Treatise of Arithmetick in all its Parts, viz. Integers, Fractions … Figurals, etc.
3. † a. Pertaining to figure or shape (obs.). b. Of or pertaining to figures, rare.
1650. Sir T. Browne, Pseud. Ep. (ed. 2), VI. xiv. 287. Yet equall incongruities have been commonly committed by Geographers and Historians, in the figurall resemblances of severall regions on earth.
1813. W. Taylor, Eng. Synonyms (1856), 175. Keeping is a bad word, though a painter’s term for figural perspective; it is a false expression, which ought to describe stability of color; probably it originated in an attempt to translate the french tenue, holding, which is used of attitude.
1884. H. Schliemann, The Palace of the Kings of Tiryns, in North Amer. Rev., CXXXIX. 526. We also see in the wall-paintings figural representations—a bull, on which a man dances like an equestrian performer, and large fragments representing wings or sea-animals.
4. Mus. = FIGURATE a. 4.
In mod. Dicts.
