Figurative words (or phrases) are used when you
don't mean them to be taken literally; they are used as 'figures of speech'.
'The sick man found his death to be serendipitous'
'The pale sun, effeminate through the wispy cloud,
beckoned waterily'
The queen majestically stepped into the waiting
Rolls Royce, and was driven away in this contrivance'
The second of these examples is known as
'personification' as it endows the sun with human
properties ~ the sun cannot really beckon. It is
merely a figure of speech.