figurative

Just as Google and social media have enabled each of us to reach into the figurative diaries and desk drawers of anyone we might be curious about, law enforcement agencies today have access to powerful new engines of data processing and association.

Bauer literally had a Rosebud moment, but may not have had a figurative one.

No, says the confused C.K, who expected the figurative nature of his statement to be obvious.

Cheshire is less interested in the literal, chromosomal answer than the figurative one.

In that moment, Will has fully embraced the figurative dark side.

In a figurative way, palimpsest refers to an object or place that reflects its own history.

To use your figurative language, when this wormeaten monarchy is broken, what will come out of the ruins?

There is a generally accepted division of language into literal and figurative.

When a person says, “He is a bright boy,” he has used the word “bright” in a sense that is not literal; the use is figurative.

Figurative language employs words with meanings not strictly literal, but varying from their ordinary definitions.

The concentrations are figurative, but may be taken to represent actual concentrations, such as 0.015 molar, etc.