a figment of somebody’s imaginationIMAGINEsomething that you imagine is real, but does not exist 某人凭空想象的事物,某人虚构的事物
Examples from the Corpus
a figment of somebody’s imagination• These two men actually lived; they weren't figments of some writer's imagination.• The gymslipLolita is not entirely a figment of the male imagination.• The carpet is a figment of the imagination: an orientalpattern of light and shadowprojected on the floor.• The uglyrectory is a figment of my imagination, for there was never such a building on WoodGreen.• But don't take my word for it; this is not a figment of the journalistic imagination.• It had vanished as silently as if it had been only a figment of her imagination.• Nearly three years after work had begun, the dam was still a figment of the imagination.• The Ghost of Banquo is more than a figment of Macbeth's imagination: it stands in some way in relation to his conscience.• Neither one was a figment of his imagination.
Examples from the Corpus
figment• Whether the circle of churches exists, or whether it is a figment of a map-maker's imagination remains to be seen.• True, the commercially successfulelectric car is still a figment.• No one ever turned up such a child, whose existence seems to have been yet another figment of fertileright-wing imaginations.• Suddenly, it seemed utterly unbelievable, a merefigment of her dreamlike state.• He was a ghost I carried around inside me, a prehistoricfigment, a thing that was no longer real.
Originfigment
(1400-1500)Latinfigmentum, from fingere; → FIGURE1