Dictionary

figurately en · ADV

Etymology

Etymology tree English figurate Middle English -ly English -ly English figurately From figurate + -ly.

Meanings

1. Figuratively, in a figurative manner.
   • He stood in the centre of that great pile, figurately speaking, the cynosure of all eyes from Maine to California, and his fame was noised abroad in Europe. 1887, Henry Clews, Twenty-eight Years in Wall Street, page 233:
   • It is as when we seek for the signification of any particular word in a language; we may find that it bears many different meanings, and some which seem to be contradictory to each other; yet upon further search we may perhaps discover that there is a common idea, which is the source of them all, and that they differ only because the word is taken in one sense literally, in another figurately, and in a third with some special application. 1849, William Nind, Lecture-Sermons preached in a Country Parish Church, pages 115–116:
2. In a figurate manner; using or forming a figure.
   • In the regulations for Trnava school, which Nicolaus Olahus issued in 1554, we find "The sublector should support a school succentor, who would teach the boys to sing figurately, as well as Gregorian chant." 1977, Slovenské národné múzeum, Ivan Mačák, Sources of Slovak Music, page 108:
   • As was observed before in Figuration of Surds; so here it may be remembred that any Species simply Irrational, multiplied figurately, produceth a Rational: But Compound Irrational Species may be squared, cubed, etc. by multiplying them figurately as other Figural Numbers are multiplied; but the Unciae to the Parodical Degrees here, will be the Squares of them in Rational Species. 1701, Samuel Jeake, A Compleat Body of Arithmetic:

Forms