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.

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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

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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

They were within twenty paces of the silent watcher when he moved--up to that time he might have been a lay figure.

From The Great House by Stanley John Weyman

This good, insipid, incapable lady was 292 not a person to uphold any one, and answered Francezka’s requirement for a lay figure perfectly.

From Francezka by Molly Elliot Seawell

And all this time she had sat like a statue, like a milliner's lay figure, to be dressed, unheeding, unnoticing it all, until Susan had finished.

From The Actress' Daughter A Novel by May Agnes Fleming

Never permit yourself to be the lay figure of a photographer’s ideal landscapes.

From Maids Wives and Bachelors by Amelia Edith Huddleston Barr

Matilda's character is drawn well at the start; in the latter part she rather tends to become a lay figure.

From Philip Massinger by A. H. Cruickshank