Alexander Schmidt, Shakespeare Lexicon and Quotation Dictionary

Figure, subst. 1) form, shape: “--s of delight, drawn after you,” Sonn. 98, 11. “a f. trenched in ice,” Gentl. III, 2, 6. “before so noble and so great a f. be stamped upon it,” Meas. I, 1, 50; cf. Merch. II, 7, 56 and Cymb. V, 4, 25. “in the f. of a lamb,” Ado I, 1, 15. “as a form of wax resolveth from his f. 'gainst the fire,” John V, 4, 25. “when we see the f. of the house,” H4B I, 3, 43. “key-cold f. of a holy king,” R3 I, 2, 5. “whose f. even this instant cloud puts on,” H8 I, 1, 225. “that unbodied f. of the thought,” Troil. I, 3, 16. “in such indexes is seen the baby f. of the giant mass of things to come,” Troil. I, 3, 16 “a gate of steel fronting the sun receives and renders back his f.” III, 3, 123. “in the same f. like the king,” Hml. I, 1, 41. “this portentous f.” Hml. I, 1, 41 “a f. like your father,” I, 2, 199. “what would your gracious f.?” III, 4, 104. “the native act and f. of my heart,” Oth. I, 1, 62. “a fixed f. for the time of scorn,” IV, 2, 54. “in as like a f.” Cymb. III, 3, 96.
2) an image formed by any kind of art: “the silken --s,” Compl. 17 (i. e. embroidery). “to leave the f. or disfigure it,” Mids. I, 1, 51. “there shall no f. at such rate be set,” Rom. V, 3, 301. “these pencilled --s,” Tim. I, 1, 159. “--s such and such,” Cymb. II, 2, 26. “never saw I --s so likely to report themselves,” II, 4, 82.
3) image in general, representation: “bravely the f. of this harpy hast thou performed,” Tp. III, 3, 83. “what f. of us think you he will bear?” Meas. I, 1, 17. “the f. of God's majesty,” R2 IV, 125. “in Helicanus may you well descry a f. of truth, of faith, of loyalty,” Per. V, 3, 92.
4) idea, imagination: “a spirit full of forms, --s, shapes,” LLL IV, 2, 68. “that the great f. of a council frames by self-unable motion,” All's III, 1, 12. “he apprehends a world of --s here, but not the form of what he should attend,” H4A I, 3, 209. Denoting idle fancies tending to disquiet the mind: “to scrape the --s out of your husband's brains,” Wiv. IV, 2, 231. “thou hast no --s nor no fantasies which busy care draws in the brains of men,” Caes. II, 1, 231.
5) a character denoting a number: “we fortify in paper and in --s,” H4B I, 3, 56. “a crooked f. may attest in little place a million,” H4B I, 3, 56. “thou art an O without a f.” Lr. I, 4, 212. “hearts, tongues, --s . . . . cannot think, speak, cast . . .” Ant. III, 2, 16. Quibbling: “yet doth beauty, like a dial-hand, steal from his f. and no pace perceived,” Sonn. 104, 10. “a most fine f. To prove you a cipher,” LLL I, 2, 58. “there I shall see mine own f. Which I take to be either a fool or a cipher,” As III, 2, 307.
6) a character in writing, a letter: “and write in thee the --s of their love, ever to read them thine,” Tim. V, 1, 157. “our captain hath in every f. skill, an aged interpreter,” V, 3, 7. Perhaps, at least quibbling, also in Oth. I, 1, 62.
7) a turn of rhetoric: “she wooes you by a f.” Gentl. II, 1, 154. “a most fine f.” LLL I, 2, 58. “what is the f.?” V, 1, 67. “--s pedantical,” V, 2, 408. “it is a f. in rhetoric,” As V, 1, 45. “there is --s in all things,” H5 IV, 7, 35. “a foolish f.” Hml. II, 2, 98. Quibbling: “he will throw a f. in her face,” Shr. I, 2, 114 (alluding perhaps to what is called the ten commandments).
8) a peculiar mode of fortune-telling: “she works by charms, by spells, by the f.” Wiv. IV, 2, 185 (certainly not by the horoscope, as Johnson interprets it, but perhaps, after an old German custom, by throwing molten lead into cold water and interpreting the fantastical figures thus formed).