[f. as prec. + -NESS.]
The quality of being figurative.
a. 1729. S. Clarke, Serm., II. cxxii. 45. From the figurativeness therefore of these expressions, as well as from the nature and evident reason of the thing itself, ’tis plain that the Kingdom of Satan, set up in opposition to the Kingdom of God, is not literally a Kingdom of Force or Power.
1816. J. Gilchrist, Philosophic Etymology, 227. Dispense with the figurativeness of Bacon’s style!! The reason—the utility—the necessity of it will remain to eternity—unless human beings shall at last be dwindled down and worn away into thin, shadowy, metaphysical ghosts.
1837. Hallam, Hist. Lit., III. iv. § 8. The precepts especially of revelation, notwithstanding their brevity and figurativeness, were held complete and literal.
1881. Athenæum, No. 2811. 328/2. The figurativeness of another kind of which Mr. Dante Rossetti’s sonnets are so full.
