pedestal
Americannoun
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pedestals
plural
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an architectural support for a column, statue, vase, or the like.
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a supporting structure or piece; base.
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Furniture.
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a support for a desk, consisting of a boxlike frame containing drawers one above the other.
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a columnar support for a tabletop.
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Building Trades. a bulge cast at the bottom of a concrete pile.
verb (used with object)
idioms
noun
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a base that supports a column, statue, etc, as used in classical architecture
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a position of eminence or supposed superiority (esp in the phrases place, put, or set on a pedestal )
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either of a pair of sets of drawers used as supports for a writing surface
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( as modifier )
a pedestal desk
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Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of pedestal
1555–65; alteration of Middle French piedestal < Italian piedestallo, variant of piedistallo literally, foot of stall. See ped- 2, de, stall 1
Explanation
A pedestal is a base or foundation that supports something like a statue or work of art. Think of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. where a statue of Lincoln sitting in a chair is raised up on a huge pedestal. Think of the physical stand or support when you use pedestal figuratively to mean a place of superiority. If you put someone on a pedestal, you honor that person or place him or her above you, as you might a piece of valued art. If you want to knock someone off his or her pedestal, you think that person is too arrogant and you want to do something to humble him or her.
Vocabulary lists containing pedestal
Body Language: Ped, Pod ("Foot")
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The Poet X
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On a Pedestal: Marble-ous Words for Sculpture
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Standing on a concrete pedestal, the statue will depict the pontiff with open arms, wearing his long papal robe and a crucifix around his neck.
From Barron's ● Sep. 26, 2026
She puts him a little bit on a pedestal, and I think he really needs that.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 22, 2026
Parton asked them to withdraw the bill, saying that “given all that is going on in the world, I don’t think putting me on a pedestal is appropriate at this time.”
From Salon ● Aug. 29, 2026
"Playing an Open at Birkdale is something that is always going to be very, very special and sit on a pedestal for anybody from Southport," Fleetwood said.
From BBC ● Jul. 14, 2026
An object his mother used as a paperweight stood beside the inkwell: a small glass sphere, on a black plastic pedestal, containing a snowman wearing a stovepipe hat.
From "Franny and Zooey" by J. D. Salinger
Some artificial-intelligence stocks that got knocked off their pedestals, in part due to a bruising July selloff, now represent attractive opportunities for investors, according to BofA analysts.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 14, 2026
These beautiful buildings acting as pedestals for some kind of ad space, you know?
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 17, 2026
“They are treated as gods and goddesses and put on pedestals for searching for and ‘representing’ truth and knowledge and recognizing and being proud of who they are and where they come from.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 31, 2025
Specifically, Parisi looked at certain pedestals and determined the amount of heating and fueling required to achieve it given a particular plasma shape.
From Science Daily ● May 28, 2024
The vault is a wide, dark space with little spotlights shining down on long rows of pedestals.
From "Amari and the Night Brothers" by B.B. Alston
The trainer swaggered up to a pedestaled tiger, thrust the chair at its open jaws.
From Time Magazine Archive
But to Back Bay he is an idol, firmly pedestaled.
From Time Magazine Archive
He flicked a whip at the cageful of pedestaled lions & tigers, took the chance of turning his back on them, jumped into the fight.
From Time Magazine Archive
Coal followed one of the curves to the closest pedestaled mirror.
From "Boy 2.0" by Tracey Baptiste
Why comes temptation but for man to meet And master and make crouch beneath his foot, And so be pedestaled in triumph?
From Mysticism in English Literature by Caroline F. E. Spurgeon
Why comes temptation but for man to meet And master and make crouch beneath his foot, And so be pedestalled in triumph?
From An Introduction to the Study of Browning by Arthur Symons
She had always accepted with philosophic calm the fact that such existences as hers were pedestalled on foundations of obscure humanity.
From House of Mirth by Edith Wharton
And thou shalt see her standing straight and pale, High pedestalled on some rook-haunted tower: She has two earrings, silver and vermeil, And eyes like stars that shine in sunset hour.
From Forty-Two Poems by James Elroy Flecker
Plashing fountains, murmuring organs, a Marochetti Queen high pedestalled, white statues, glistering silver-blazoned banners.
From Punch - Volume 25 (Jul-Dec 1853) by Various
She stands pedestalled on the lotus of our heart.
From Sir Jagadis Chunder Bose His Life and Speeches by Sir Jagadis Chandra Bose
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
