lay figure

American  

noun

1. a jointed model of the human body, usually of wood, from which artists work in the absence of a living model.

2. a similar figure used in shops to display costumes.

3. a person of no importance, individuality, distinction, etc.; nonentity.

---

lay figure British  

noun

1. an artist's jointed dummy, used in place of a live model, esp for studying effects of drapery

2. a person considered to be subservient or unimportant

---

Etymology

Origin of lay figure

1785–95; lay, extracted from obsolete layman < Dutch leeman, variant of ledenman, equivalent to leden- (combining form of lid limb, cognate with Old English, Middle English lith ) + man man )

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

lay figure

Saint or sinner, the Shelley of Trelawny is no lay figure, no statue even, no hero of romance; it is Shelley, the man, the boy, the poet.

From The Life and Letters of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, Volume II (of 2) by Marshall, Florence A. Thomas

Hers was not the disposition to act the r�le of a lay figure, it will be easily imagined.

From The Last of the Vikings by Bowling, John

The woman is only a lay figure whom we invest with the vague splendours of our snobbish and inexperienced imagination.

From Captain Macedoine's Daughter by McFee, William

Helen, to a mature mind so full of interest ethical and artistic, is beyond the comprehension of the children as anything more than a lay figure.

From Literature in the Elementary School by MacClintock, Porter Lander

So I had to treat him like a lay figure and liberate each limb and rub it until the circulation was restored.

From Forty Years of 'Spy' by Ward, Leslie