masc., Figurante fem. [Fr. figurant, figurante, pr. pple. of figurer to FIGURE.
The pl. masc. was formerly sometimes written figurans. It is often impossible to determine whether figurante is intended for the F. or the It. word: see next.]
1. A ballet-dancer.
1790. W. Combe, The Devil upon Two Sticks in England (1817), I. 126. Whether the lascivious agility of his figurantes will not be increased when they repeat the dance as naked as they were born.
1807. T. Horne, trans. Goede’s Trav., II. 264. The theatre at Paris possesses a far greater number of excellent dancers of both sexes than that of London; and its statists and figurants are comparatively more skilful than on the latter.
1837. J. Richardson, Movements of the British Legion, ii. (ed. 2), 42. A sort of ballet, the figurans and figurantes in which were inmates of a mad-house, whose deplorable eccentricities were sought to be illustrated by a variety of the most grotesque and revolting movements.
1859. Smiles, Self-Help, iii. (1860), 52. The poor figurante must devote years of incessant toil to her profitless task before she can shine in it.
2. A supernumerary character on the stage who takes no prominent part, and has little or nothing to say.
1775. H. Walpole, Lett. (1857), VI. 195. The first people of fashion are going to act plays, in which comedians, singers, dancers, figurantes, might all walk at a coronation.
1816. J. Scott, Vis. Paris (ed. 5), 342. It strikes me with sadness that the women can be little more than the figurantes, receiving a mock reverence merely to carry on the drama; but neither cherished nor respected.
1886. Athenæum, 2 Jan., 15/1. [In the play] Shakspeare is a mere figurant.
transf. 1893. The Nation (N.Y.), 21 Sept., LVII. 211/2. They were but figurants in the great drama in which Napoleon was the supreme actor.
