FIGURED, in music, is applied either to simple notes or to harmony: to simple notes, as in these words figured bass, to express a bass whose notes carrying chords are subdivided into many other notes of lesser value; to harmony, when, by supposition and in a diatonic procedure, other notes than those which form the chord are employed. See SUPPOSITION.
To figure is to pass several notes for one; to form runnings or variations; to add some notes to the air, in whatever manner it be done; in short, it is to give to harmonious sounds a figure of melody, by connecting them with other intermediate sounds.