How to Use figurative in a Sentence

figurative

adjective
  • Notre Dame threw the first figurative punch of the game.
    — The New York Times, New York Times, 25 Mar. 2023
  • The figurative painter Chaz Guest has fans in high places.
    — New York Times, 2 Feb. 2022
  • The creator of the art is detached from it the moment the figurative pen lid clicks shut.
    — Howard Murphy, Rolling Stone, 20 Oct. 2023
  • The word took on a more figurative sense in the 19th century.
    — Suzannah Showler, WIRED, 3 Oct. 2023
  • The Dodgers were into the Padres bullpen in a figurative sense a short while later.
    — Kevin Acee, The Mercury News, 10 Oct. 2024
  • There's plenty of the figurative beef to go around, too.
    — Bloomberg.com, 3 July 2017
  • But at the start of The Rings of Power, most of the Elvish elite is intent on placing its figurative head in the proverbial sand.
    — Daniel Bessner, The New Republic, 7 Sep. 2022
  • Fields is in a figurative room where his only peer is Lawrence, whom the Tigers lost for two weeks because of the virus.
    — Stephen Means, cleveland, 12 Nov. 2020
  • While not figurative, many of these pieces bring to mind organs and veins.
    — Jane Yong Kim, The Atlantic, 3 Sep. 2017
  • The first step involves looking in the mirror, in the figurative sense.
    — Andrew Weinberg, Forbes, 25 Feb. 2021
  • One of the paintings that graced Vidal’s study was a figurative work by his friend Rudolf Nureyev.
    — Christopher Bollen, Town & Country, 8 June 2022
  • But after four years cooped up in a monastery, Mary runs away and heads straight for (figurative) sin city.
    — Sara Holdren, Vulture, 22 Sep. 2023
  • So, in a figurative sense, the aquarium is killing two birds with one stone.
    — Christine Condon, baltimoresun.com, 22 Feb. 2022
  • At a time when the world seems topsy-turvy, the moon is a literal and figurative rock.
    — Nicole Clausing, Sunset Magazine, 24 Sep. 2020
  • That got a figurative shot in the arm this week with some federal help.
    — Ike Morgan | [email protected], al, 11 Dec. 2020
  • In his first year on the job, the figurative script often ended up in tatters.
    — Nathan Ruiz, baltimoresun.com, 16 Aug. 2020
  • With the book, Canales flung open a door and let people peer into the figurative skeletons in his closet.
    — Scott Fowler, Charlotte Observer, 30 Jan. 2024
  • The artist was commissioned to create a figurative work in honor of the Queen’s reign.
    — Elise Taylor, Vogue, 1 Oct. 2018
  • O’Halloran: The Broncos have put all of their figurative eggs in Lock’s basket.
    — Mark Kiszla, The Denver Post, 30 Mar. 2020
  • All his rivals saw most of the race was his figurative vapor trail.
    — Nathaniel Herz, Alaska Dispatch News, 5 July 2017
  • Didn’t kill her in a literal sense, didn’t kill her in a figurative sense.
    — Lili Anolik, Vulture, 12 Nov. 2024
  • Pegues is more concerned with his team’s lack of figurative fight.
    — Brett Dawson, The Courier-Journal, 2 Mar. 2022
  • The name instead is a tip of the figurative hat to 1869, when Second Street was cut through Rincon Hill to reach the waterfront.
    — John King, SFChronicle.com, 30 June 2019
  • At the blue-chip and mega-galleries, sales were swift, with many works pre-sold or already on hold by the time the figurative starting bell rang at 12 pm.
    — Harrison Jacobs, ARTnews.com, 26 Mar. 2025
  • Sometimes the messaging is more figurative, as in the climate-change metaphors of the Frozen franchise or Game of Thrones.
    — Megan Garber, The Atlantic, 20 Apr. 2021
  • The results for 2020 are all over the figurative as well as literal map.
    — John Pfaff, The New Republic, 21 June 2021
  • The venture, though, which was financed through a loan, came at a steep cost, in literal and figurative terms.
    — Gary Baum, The Hollywood Reporter, 26 Sep. 2023
  • Developers could place objects on the wall, not just the floor, and to a point, literal bumps in the road were no longer figurative bumps in the road.
    — Samuel Axon, Ars Technica, 16 June 2018
  • The album thematically focuses on the idea of the afterlife in both a literal and figurative sense, with a touch of Carlile's anecdotal songwriting and requiems for artists' past.
    — Madison E. Goldberg, People.com, 5 Apr. 2025
  • The role of deep and purposeful human connection amid this literal and figurative perfect storm of circumstances has never been more crucial.
    — Paul David, Forbes.com, 23 Apr. 2025

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'figurative.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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