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

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

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

At City Hall, the statue of Columbus stood atop a stone pedestal.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 4, 2026

Don Colossus stands proud atop a stone pedestal, keeping vigil over a small commemorative plaque.

From Slate ● Jun. 2, 2026

But some in the industry would argue that, despite their cultural and economic contributions, games aren't placed on the same pedestal as other creative sectors.

From BBC ● Apr. 16, 2026

There’s a tendency to put mothers on a pedestal and we judge them harshly over every decision they make.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 15, 2026

The three of them dashed up the hall and entered the stinky room where Charles was sitting in a vibrating pedestal chair, thumbing his controller.

From "Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library" by Chris Grabenstein

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

Displaying them overhead or enshrined on pedestals, as at MoMA, is more dramatic and less ambiguous than propping them against gallery walls.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 30, 2026

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

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 17, 2026

"Nothing is left but the pedestals of the memorials and a few of the stones from them," he wrote online.

From BBC ● Nov. 8, 2025

Dylan’s eyes go back and forth between the two pedestals.

From "Amari and the Night Brothers" by B.B. Alston

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 Mysticism in English Literature by Caroline F. E. Spurgeon

And thou shalt see her standing straight and pale, High pedestalled on some rook-haunted tower: She has two earrings, silver and vermeil, And eyes like stars that shine in sunset hour.

From Forty-Two Poems by James Elroy Flecker

He really must get some one to give him that little pedestalled Cupid which he saw yesterday in Wardour Street.

From Yet Again by Sir Max Beerbohm

Rather turn Whither, upon the upland, pedestalled Into the broad day-splendour, whom discern These eyes but thee, supreme one, rightly called Moon-maid in heaven above and, here below, Earth's huntress-queen?

From An Introduction to the Study of Browning by Arthur Symons

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 sundial with which we had such strange associations.

From The Return of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Now, in a trice, he was not only admitted to comradeship, but patently valued as something rare and sacred to be acclaimed and pedestalled.

From Penrod by Booth Tarkington

Related Words

• podium