pedestal

American  

[ped-uh-stl] / ˈpɛd ə stl /

noun

• pedestals
  plural

1. an architectural support for a column, statue, vase, or the like.

2. a supporting structure or piece; base.

3. Furniture.

   1. a support for a desk, consisting of a boxlike frame containing drawers one above the other.

   2. a columnar support for a tabletop.

4. Building Trades. a bulge cast at the bottom of a concrete pile.

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verb (used with object)

pedestaled, pedestaling, pedestalled, pedestalling

1. to put on or supply with a pedestal.

idioms

1. set / put on a pedestal, to glorify; idealize.

   When we first became engaged each of us set the other on a pedestal.

pedestal British  

/ ˈpɛdɪstəl /

noun

1. a base that supports a column, statue, etc, as used in classical architecture

2. a position of eminence or supposed superiority (esp in the phrases place, put, or set on a pedestal )

3. 1. either of a pair of sets of drawers used as supports for a writing surface

   2. ( as modifier )

      a pedestal desk

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pedestal More Idioms  

1. see on a pedestal.

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• unpedestal
  verb (used with object)

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• pedestals
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of pedestal

1555–65; alteration of Middle French piedestal < Italian piedestallo, variant of piedistallo literally, foot of stall. See ped- ², de, stall ¹

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Explanation

A pedestal is a base or foundation that supports something like a statue or work of art. Think of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. where a statue of Lincoln sitting in a chair is raised up on a huge pedestal. Think of the physical stand or support when you use pedestal figuratively to mean a place of superiority. If you put someone on a pedestal, you honor that person or place him or her above you, as you might a piece of valued art. If you want to knock someone off his or her pedestal, you think that person is too arrogant and you want to do something to humble him or her.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

pedestal pedestals pedestaled pedestalled

Standing on a concrete pedestal, the statue will depict the pontiff with open arms, wearing his long papal robe and a crucifix around his neck.

From Barron's ● Sep. 26, 2026

"Playing an Open at Birkdale is something that is always going to be very, very special and sit on a pedestal for anybody from Southport," Fleetwood said.

From BBC ● Jul. 14, 2026

They’re here, they’re there, they move from pedestal to pedestal.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 22, 2026

“Drake was very highly regarded before then. For some people, that knocked him off the pedestal a bit.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 13, 2026

Before he could turn Cleo on its side, Gorringe would have to raise it a few inches off its pedestal.

From "The (Mostly) True Story of Cleopatra's Needle" by Dan Gutman

Some artificial-intelligence stocks that got knocked off their pedestals, in part due to a bruising July selloff, now represent attractive opportunities for investors, according to BofA analysts.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 14, 2026

The lower level of the Winners Gallery has cars on pedestals that are banked 9 degrees, 12 minutes—the same as the four banked turns of the racetrack.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 20, 2026

These beautiful buildings acting as pedestals for some kind of ad space, you know?

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 17, 2026

Fundamentally, the new model enhances our understanding of pedestals and brings scientists closer to achieving the greater goal of designing a fusion reactor that generates more power than it consumes.

From Science Daily ● May 28, 2024

Everywhere there were statues of lions—on top of pedestals, over doorways, on the porticoes of the largest buildings.

From "The House of Hades" by Rick Riordan

The trainer swaggered up to a pedestaled tiger, thrust the chair at its open jaws.

From Time Magazine Archive

He flicked a whip at the cageful of pedestaled lions & tigers, took the chance of turning his back on them, jumped into the fight.

From Time Magazine Archive

But to Back Bay he is an idol, firmly pedestaled.

From Time Magazine Archive

Coal followed one of the curves to the closest pedestaled mirror.

From "Boy 2.0" by Tracey Baptiste

Why comes temptation, but for man to meet And master, and make crouch beneath his foot, And so be pedestaled in triumph?

From Handy Dictionary of Poetical Quotations by Various

Tuscarora County was put through its paces for a gaping world; Clinton's Ditch—"well-spring of New York's commercial supremacy, gentlemen"—shown in rosiest apotheosis; the Empire State pedestalled imperially among the nations.

From The Henchman by Mark Lee Luther

She stands pedestalled on the lotus of our heart.

From Sir Jagadis Chunder Bose His Life and Speeches by Sir Jagadis Chandra Bose

It was Cromwell's mood, as one who, living under the eye of God, scorned the vapourings of pedestalled mortals.

From The Path of the King by John Buchan

It rises full over the desert; and a vast horizon comes into relief, broken by a huge shape which soon reveals itself in the spreading radiance as a Sphinx pedestalled on the sands.

From Caesar and Cleopatra by Bernard Shaw

As we drove up to the porticoed front door I observed in front of it, beside the tennis lawn, the black tool-house and the pedestalled sun-dial with which we had such strange associations.

From The Return of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

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