lay figure

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

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

Word History and Origins

Origin of lay figure¹

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 )

Word History and Origins

Origin of lay figure¹

C18: from obsolete layman, from Dutch leeman, literally: joint-man

Example Sentences

Animated lay figures, as if out of a "how to draw" book, skip and jump and ingeniously draw themselves.

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They are never wax-work, or lay figures, or skeletons clothed in words, or purple rags of description stuffed out with straw into an awkward likeness to the human form.

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

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The lay figure or type is one all through.

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The process by which the “gentiles” have been robbed of their legitimate history was the inevitable result of a religion whose sacred books make them lay figures for the history of the Jews.

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