figure vs slice

figure

noun
  • A number, an amount. 

  • A visible pattern as in wood or cloth. 

  • A drawing or diagram conveying information. 

  • A human figure, which dress or corset must fit to; the shape of a human body. 

  • A form of melody or accompaniment kept up through a strain or passage; a motif; a florid embellishment. 

  • The form of a syllogism with respect to the relative position of the middle term. 

  • A figure of speech. 

  • The appearance or impression made by the conduct or career of a person. 

  • A person or thing representing a certain consciousness. 

  • A numeral. 

  • A horoscope; the diagram of the aspects of the astrological houses. 

  • Any short succession of notes, either as melody or as a group of chords, which produce a single complete and distinct impression. 

  • The representation of any form, as by drawing, painting, modelling, carving, embroidering, etc.; especially, a representation of the human body. 

  • A shape. 

  • Any complex dance moveᵂ. 

verb
  • To represent by a metaphor; to signify or symbolize. 

  • To write over or under the bass, as figures or other characters, in order to indicate the accompanying chords. 

  • To calculate, to solve a mathematical problem. 

  • To enter into; to be a part of. 

  • To think, to assume, to suppose, to reckon. 

  • To embellish with design; to adorn with figures. 

  • To embellish. 

  • To come to understand. 

  • To be reasonable. 

slice

noun
  • An amount of anything. 

  • A hawk's or falcon's dropping which squirts at an angle other than vertical. (See mute.) 

  • A piece of pizza, shaped like a sector of a circle. 

  • A contiguous portion of an array. 

  • A removable sliding bottom to a galley. 

  • A snack consisting of pastry with savoury filling. 

  • That which is thin and broad. 

  • One of the wedges by which the cradle and the ship are lifted clear of the building blocks to prepare for launching. 

  • A shot that (for the right-handed player) curves unintentionally to the right. See fade, hook, draw 

  • A thin, broad piece cut off. 

  • A section of image taken of an internal organ using MRI (magnetic resonance imaging), CT (computed tomography), or various forms of x-ray. 

  • Any of a class of heavy cakes or desserts made in a tray and cut out into squarish slices. 

  • A salver, platter, or tray. 

  • A broad, thin piece of plaster. 

  • A knife with a thin, broad blade for taking up or serving fish; also, a spatula for spreading anything, as paint or ink. 

  • A plate of iron with a handle, forming a kind of chisel, or a spadelike implement, variously proportioned, and used for various purposes, as for stripping the planking from a vessel's side, for cutting blubber from a whale, or for stirring a fire of coals; a slice bar; a peel; a fire shovel. 

verb
  • To cut into slices. 

  • To kick the ball so that it goes in an unintended direction, at too great an angle or too high. 

  • To hit a shot that slices (travels from left to right for a right-handed player). 

  • To cut with an edge utilizing a drawing motion. 

  • To angle the blade so that it goes too deeply into the water when starting to take a stroke. 

  • To clear (e.g. a fire, or the grate bars of a furnace) by means of a slice bar. 

  • To hit the ball with a stroke that causes a spin, resulting in the ball swerving or staying low after a bounce. 

  • To hit the shuttlecock with the racket at an angle, causing it to move sideways and downwards. 

adj
  • Having the properties of a slice knot. 

How often have the words figure and slice occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )