cigar-store Indian

American  

[si-gahr-stawr, -stohr] / sɪˈgɑrˌstɔr, -ˌstoʊr /

noun

1. a wooden statue of an American Indian, traditionally displayed at the entrance of cigar stores.

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Etymology

Origin of cigar-store Indian

First recorded in 1925–30

Example Sentences

In Mr. Smith’s house you’ll find more than two dozen antique weather vanes featuring sculpted animals, hundreds of miniature toy soldiers battling on the shelves and a cigar-store Indian.

From New York Times

Most of Mr. Young’s set — performed on a stage that held tepees and a cigar-store Indian — was devoted to songs with environmental concerns, warning about polluting the earth and exhausting natural resources; it was also a showcase for his current band, Promise of the Real, which can handle both loud, impetuous jamming and folksy ballads.

From New York Times

The pig is a carved wooden sculpture that stands like a cigar-store Indian, perpetually waving, outside Rudy’s, on Ninth Avenue near 44th Street.

From New York Times

And I marveled at the audacity of Gmurzynska, where paintings by the Dadaist Kurt Schwitters and an assemblage of a wagon wheel and a cigar-store Indian by the Pop artist Robert Indiana sat incongruously in a gray-walled booth designed by Karl Lagerfeld.

From New York Times

Asked earlier Friday what a Tony La Russa mascot or doll would look like, he replied, “a cigar-store Indian.”

From New York Times