What's the difference between figure and ground?

Figure


Definition:

  • (n.) The form of anything; shape; outline; appearance.
  • (n.) The representation of any form, as by drawing, painting, modeling, carving, embroidering, etc.; especially, a representation of the human body; as, a figure in bronze; a figure cut in marble.
  • (n.) A pattern in cloth, paper, or other manufactured article; a design wrought out in a fabric; as, the muslin was of a pretty figure.
  • (n.) A diagram or drawing; made to represent a magnitude or the relation of two or more magnitudes; a surface or space inclosed on all sides; -- called superficial when inclosed by lines, and solid when inclosed by surface; any arrangement made up of points, lines, angles, surfaces, etc.
  • (n.) The appearance or impression made by the conduct or carrer of a person; as, a sorry figure.
  • (n.) Distinguished appearance; magnificence; conspicuous representation; splendor; show.
  • (n.) A character or symbol representing a number; a numeral; a digit; as, 1, 2,3, etc.
  • (n.) Value, as expressed in numbers; price; as, the goods are estimated or sold at a low figure.
  • (n.) A person, thing, or action, conceived of as analogous to another person, thing, or action, of which it thus becomes a type or representative.
  • (n.) A mode of expressing abstract or immaterial ideas by words which suggest pictures or images from the physical world; pictorial language; a trope; hence, any deviation from the plainest form of statement.
  • (n.) The form of a syllogism with respect to the relative position of the middle term.
  • (n.) Any one of the several regular steps or movements made by a dancer.
  • (n.) A horoscope; the diagram of the aspects of the astrological houses.
  • (n.) Any short succession of notes, either as melody or as a group of chords, which produce a single complete and distinct impression.
  • (n.) A form of melody or accompaniment kept up through a strain or passage; a musical or motive; a florid embellishment.
  • (n.) To represent by a figure, as to form or mold; to make an image of, either palpable or ideal; also, to fashion into a determinate form; to shape.
  • (n.) To embellish with design; to adorn with figures.
  • (n.) To indicate by numerals; also, to compute.
  • (n.) To represent by a metaphor; to signify or symbolize.
  • (n.) To prefigure; to foreshow.
  • (n.) To write over or under the bass, as figures or other characters, in order to indicate the accompanying chords.
  • (n.) To embellish.
  • (v. t.) To make a figure; to be distinguished or conspicious; as, the envoy figured at court.
  • (v. t.) To calculate; to contrive; to scheme; as, he is figuring to secure the nomination.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Today’s figures tell us little about the timing of the first increase in interest rates, which will depend on bigger picture news on domestic growth, pay trends and perceived downside risks in the global economy,” he said.
  • (2) To this figure an additional 250,000 older workers must be added, who are no longer registered as unemployed but nevertheless would be interested in finding another job.
  • (3) The criticism over the downgrading of the leader of the Lords was led by Lord Forsyth of Drumlean, a former Scotland secretary, who is a respected figure on the right.
  • (4) Brown's model, which goes far further than those from any other senior Labour figure, and the modest new income tax powers for Holyrood devised when he was prime minister, edge the party much closer to the quasi-federal plans championed by the Liberal Democrats.
  • (5) According to some reports as many as 30 people were killed in the explosion, although that figure could not be independently confirmed.
  • (6) As increases to the Isa allowance are based on the CPI inflation figure for the year to the previous September, the new data suggests the current Isa limit of £15,240 will remain unchanged next year.
  • (7) Shelter’s analysis of MoJ figures highlights high-risk hotspots across the country where families are particularly at risk of losing their homes, with households in Newham, east London, most exposed to the possibility of eviction or repossession, with one in every 36 homes threatened.
  • (8) Mitotic figures and leukotriene B4 levels in lesions decreased 86% and 64%, respectively, after seven days of cyclosporine therapy.
  • (9) Even if it were not the case that police use a variety of tricks to keep recorded crime figures low, this data would still represent an almost meaningless measure of the extent of crime in society, for the simple reason that a huge proportion of crimes (of almost all sorts) have always gone unreported.
  • (10) They urged the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs to make air quality a higher priority and release the latest figures on premature deaths.
  • (11) Which must make yesterday's jobs figures doubly alarming for the coalition.
  • (12) Of particular note is the difference between Black American and Nigerian figures.
  • (13) At autopsy, this DOCA-hypertensive rat was found to have a form of hepatitis associated with proliferative activity, i.e., cellular unrest, mitotic figures and oval cell hyperplasia.
  • (14) Okawa, who became the world's oldest person last June following the death at 116 of fellow Japanese Jiroemon Kimura , was given a cake with just three candles at her nursing home in Osaka – one for each figure in her age.
  • (15) If Lagarde had been placed under formal investigation in the Tapie case, it would have risked weakening her position and further embarrassing both the IMF and France by heaping more judicial worries on a key figure on the international stage.
  • (16) The figures, published in the company’s annual report , triggered immediate anger from fuel poverty campaigners who noted that energy suppliers had just been rapped over the knuckles by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) for overcharging .
  • (17) Figures from 228 organisations, of which 154 are acute hospital trusts, show that 2,077 inpatient procedures have been cancelled due to the two-day strike alongside 3,187 day case operations and procedures.
  • (18) It seams rational to proceed to an earlier total correction in these cases when well defined criteria are fullfilled, as the mortality figures of the palliative and corrective procedures have a tendency to reach each other: (3,2 versus 5,7%).
  • (19) It is understood that Cooper rejected pressure from senior Labour figures last week for both her and Liz Kendall to drop out and leave the way clear for Burnham to contest Corbyn alone.
  • (20) Human figure drawings of 12 pediatric oncology patients were significantly smaller in height, width, and area than were drawings of 12 school children and 12 pediatric general surgery patients paired for sex and age.

Ground


Definition:

  • (imp. & p. p.) of Grind
  • (n.) The surface of the earth; the outer crust of the globe, or some indefinite portion of it.
  • (n.) A floor or pavement supposed to rest upon the earth.
  • (n.) Any definite portion of the earth's surface; region; territory; country. Hence: A territory appropriated to, or resorted to, for a particular purpose; the field or place of action; as, a hunting or fishing ground; a play ground.
  • (n.) Land; estate; possession; field; esp. (pl.), the gardens, lawns, fields, etc., belonging to a homestead; as, the grounds of the estate are well kept.
  • (n.) The basis on which anything rests; foundation. Hence: The foundation of knowledge, belief, or conviction; a premise, reason, or datum; ultimate or first principle; cause of existence or occurrence; originating force or agency; as, the ground of my hope.
  • (n.) That surface upon which the figures of a composition are set, and which relieves them by its plainness, being either of one tint or of tints but slightly contrasted with one another; as, crimson Bowers on a white ground.
  • (n.) In sculpture, a flat surface upon which figures are raised in relief.
  • (n.) In point lace, the net of small meshes upon which the embroidered pattern is applied; as, Brussels ground. See Brussels lace, under Brussels.
  • (n.) A gummy composition spread over the surface of a metal to be etched, to prevent the acid from eating except where an opening is made by the needle.
  • (n.) One of the pieces of wood, flush with the plastering, to which moldings, etc., are attached; -- usually in the plural.
  • (n.) A composition in which the bass, consisting of a few bars of independent notes, is continually repeated to a varying melody.
  • (n.) The tune on which descants are raised; the plain song.
  • (n.) A conducting connection with the earth, whereby the earth is made part of an electrical circuit.
  • (n.) Sediment at the bottom of liquors or liquids; dregs; lees; feces; as, coffee grounds.
  • (n.) The pit of a theater.
  • (v. t.) To lay, set, or run, on the ground.
  • (v. t.) To found; to fix or set, as on a foundation, reason, or principle; to furnish a ground for; to fix firmly.
  • (v. t.) To instruct in elements or first principles.
  • (v. t.) To connect with the ground so as to make the earth a part of an electrical circuit.
  • (v. t.) To cover with a ground, as a copper plate for etching (see Ground, n., 5); or as paper or other materials with a uniform tint as a preparation for ornament.
  • (v. i.) To run aground; to strike the bottom and remain fixed; as, the ship grounded on the bar.
  • () imp. & p. p. of Grind.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Hoursoglou thinks a shortage of skilled people with a good grounding in core subjects such as maths and science is a potential problem for all manufacturers.
  • (2) The manufacturers, British Aerospace describe it as a "single-seat, radar equipped, lightweight, multi-role combat aircraft, providing comprehensive air defence and ground attack capability".
  • (3) The hospital whose A&E unit has been threatened with closure on safety grounds has admitted that four patients died after errors by staff in the emergency department and other areas.
  • (4) Keep it in the ground campaign Though they draw on completely different archives, leaked documents, and interviews with ex-employees, they reach the same damning conclusion: Exxon knew all that there was to know about climate change decades ago, and instead of alerting the rest of us denied the science and obstructed the politics of global warming.
  • (5) For this to work, its leaders had to be able to at least influence the behaviour and tactics of the militant operators on the ground.
  • (6) One thousand nineteen Wyoming ground squirrels (Spermophilus elegans elegans) from 4 populations in southern Wyoming were examined for intestinal parasites.
  • (7) Unlike most birds of prey, which are territorial and fight each other over nesting and hunting grounds, the hen harrier nests close to other harriers.
  • (8) I had loan sharks turning up at the training ground when I was at Ipswich [2011-13].
  • (9) This week, Umande broke ground on the first of a series of toilet block biocentres in a slum in Kisumu, near Lake Victoria.
  • (10) But in a setback to the UK, Somaliland, which broke away from Somalia in 1991, refused British entreaties to attend on the grounds that it would not have been treated as equal to the Somali government.
  • (11) On land, the pits' stagnant pools of water become breeding grounds for dengue fever and malaria.
  • (12) We conclude that the concept of the limbic system cannot be accepted on empirical grounds.
  • (13) On the grounds of the reported paediatric cases, the erudition in childhood is compared with the more common form in the adult, and is found to be much less linked with diabetes mellitus and to have a far better prognosis, with practically no mortality.
  • (14) It seems like an awfully long way from the ground.” He added: “When I was younger, I dreamed of being an astronaut, but I also wanted to be a policeman or a firebreather.
  • (15) We come to see that some traditions keep us grounded, but that, in our modern world, other traditions set us back.” Female genital mutilation (FGM) affects more than 130 million girls and women around the world.
  • (16) Differentiation on histopathological grounds between this tumour and the more common juvenile melanoma may be difficult, but this important distinction should be possible in almost all cases.
  • (17) For Burroughs, who had been publishing ground-breaking books for 20 years without much appreciable financial return, it was association with fame and the music industry, as well as the possible benefits: a wider readership, film hook-ups and more money.
  • (18) United and West Ham are on similar runs and can feel pretty happy about themselves but are not as confident away from home as they are at home and that will have to change if they are to make ground on the top teams.
  • (19) But today, Americans increasingly no longer shy away from saying they oppose mosques on the grounds that Muslims are a threat or different.
  • (20) One of the reasons for doing this study is to give a voice to women trapped in this epidemic,” said Dr Catherine Aiken, academic clinical lecturer in the department of obstetrics and gynaecology of the University of Cambridge, “and to bring to light that with all the virology, the vaccination and containment strategy and all the great things that people are doing, there is no voice for those women on the ground.” In a supplement to the study, the researchers have published some of the emails to Women on Web which reveal their fears.