figure out
Britishverb
-
to calculate or reckon
-
to understand
-
Discover or determine, as in Let's figure out a way to help . [Early 1900s]
-
Solve or decipher, as in Can you figure out this puzzle? [Early 1800s]
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Customs and Border Protection has been working to figure out how to process the refunds to importers that now are expected.
From MarketWatch • Apr. 1, 2026
“And so they have to figure out what’s going on, what they have to bring with them when they go to vote, what do they need to do to register, update their voter registration.”
From Salon • Mar. 31, 2026
"It led to a wild goose chase of trying to figure out where this contamination could possibly have come from, because we just knew this number was far too high to be correct," Clough said.
From Science Daily • Mar. 29, 2026
After her partner, John Weldon, suggested she probably wasn’t eating enough protein, the 38-year-old used Claude to figure out how much and which type of protein to consume.
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 28, 2026
“I’m just trying to figure out what to—they died?”
From "The Brightwood Code" by Monica Hesse
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
