The problem there is that people become inured to the repetition of mere figures.

Long before that, the king had become a mere symbolic figure, remaining respected and untouchable, but having only nominal authority.

The latter remark, by the way, is no mere figure of speech.

The term "luck of the draw" is no mere figure of speech.

Now that she was actually talking to two of them, they no longer seemed like mere historical figures.

It is a mere rhetorical figure-- what they call in the books, hyperbole.

There was something sinister and menacing in the mere figures.

To say that I saw this stage of the battle is but a mere figure of speech.

To a Klingon, "die laughing" was not a mere figure of speech.

It was as though the walls of that strange corridor had spoken, with the man in black a mere figure in their midst.