in effigy

Idioms  

1. Symbolically. For example, That umpire was completely unfair—let's burn him in effigy. Now used only figuratively, this term formerly signified a way of carrying out the sentence of a criminal who had escaped, such as burn in effigy or hang in effigy. A dummy was made of the criminal or a detested political figure and subjected to the prescribed punishment. [c. 1600]

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Example Sentences

In 1917, that meant Carrie Chapman Catt having tea with President Wilson inside the White House while Paul and her friends tried to burn him in effigy in Lafayette Square, Taub said.

From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 17, 2025

After his employees hang him in effigy, the tycoon goes undercover to ferret out the agitators of a union drive led by a store clerk in the shoe department and a union organizer.

From Salon • Sep. 5, 2022

Members of ACT UP burned him in effigy outside of the NIH building during one protest.

From Seattle Times • Jan. 12, 2022

Garrison was not perfect, but the movement he stimulated so enraged his enemies that they burned him in effigy in South Carolina and erected a gallows on his Boston doorstep.

From New York Times • Nov. 15, 2021

Jay later claimed that the entire eastern seaboard was illuminated each evening by protesters burning him in effigy.

From "Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation" by Joseph J. Ellis