LEARNING AND USING STRANGE WORDS

 In my quest for adding new words to my vocabulary, I find that the definitions given by dictionaries are not enough to grasp the meaning. I have the upper hand because I can rely on bilingual dictionaries also, which might help elucidate the idea the word is trying to convey. Take the word figment which, according to The Random House Webster´s Unabridged Dictionary is: "a mere product of mental invention; a fantastic notion: The noises in the attic were just a figment of his imagination." Can I then say "What you are saying is a figment"? Collins explains: "A fantastic notion, invention, or fabrication: a figment of the imagination." Webster´s New Worl Dictionary defines it as: "To make, device, something merely imagined or made up  in the mind." Can I say that your story is a figment?

Elizabeth McCracken published a book in 2008 entitled: An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination: a Memoir. And Shells Walter, also in 2008, published: Figments of My Imagination: Collection of Poems. Victoria Alexander tells us: "You are a figment of my imagination" in her book Believe, 2007. And so on and so forth. It is then a collocation: a figment of one´s fantasy, idea, and imagination. 

My bilingual dictionaries did not help a bit.