figure of speech
1figure of speech — Figure Fig ure (f[i^]g [ u]r; 135), n. [F., figure, L. figura; akin to fingere to form, shape, feign. See {Feign}.] 1. The form of anything; shape; outline; appearance. [1913 Webster] Flowers have all exquisite figures. Bacon. [1913 Webster] 2.… …
2figure of speech — index phrase Burton s Legal Thesaurus. William C. Burton. 2006 …
3figure of speech — n a word or expression that is used in a different way from the normal meaning, to give you a picture in your mind …
4figure of speech — noun count an expression in which the words are used FIGURATIVELY, not in their normal LITERAL meaning …
5figure of speech — is any of several recognized linguistic devices used to make language lively or more colourful, such as metaphor and simile …
6figure of speech — [n] communication that is not meant literally; stylistic device adumbration, allegory, alliteration, allusion, analogue, anaphora, anticlimax, antistrophe, antithesis, aposiopesis, apostrophe, asyndeton, bathos, comparison, conceit, echoism,… …
7figure of speech — ► NOUN ▪ a word or phrase used in a non literal sense for rhetorical or vivid effect …
8figure of speech — n. an expression, as a metaphor or simile, using words in a nonliteral sense or unusual manner to add vividness, beauty, etc. to what is said or written …
9Figure of speech — A figure of speech, sometimes termed a rhetoric, or locution, is a word or phrase that departs from straightforward, literal language. Figures of speech are often used and crafted for emphasis, freshness of expression, or clarity. However,… …
10figure of speech — noun language used in a figurative or nonliteral sense (Freq. 1) • Syn: ↑trope, ↑figure, ↑image • Derivationally related forms: ↑tropical (for: ↑trope) …
