Definify.com
Webster 1913 Edition
Figurate
1.
Of a definite form or figure.
Plants are all
figurate
and determinate, which inanimate bodies are not. Bacon.
2.
Figurative; metaphorical.
[Obs.]
Bale.
3.
(Mus.)
Florid; figurative; involving passing discords by the freer melodic movement of one or more parts or voices in the harmony;
as,
. figurate
counterpoint or descant. 1, 2, 3, 4, etc. . . . 1, 3, 6, 10, etc. . . . . . . . etc. 1, 4, 10, 20, etc . . . . . . . . . . . .
Webster 1828 Edition
Figurate
FIG'URATE
,Adj.
1.
Of a certain determinate form.Plants are all figurate and determinate, which inanimate bodies are not.
2.
Resembling any thing of a determinate form; as figurate stones, stones or fossils resembling shells.3.
Figurative. [Not used.]Figurate counterpoint, in music, that wherein there is a mixture of discords with concords.
Figurate descant, that in which discords are concerned, though not so much as concords. It may be called the ornament or rhetorical part of music, containing all the varieties of points, figures, syncopes, and diversities of measure.