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:
In the distance was a bronze statue of Louis XIV on a rearing horse in the majestic Place des Victoires, its stone pedestal stained by protesters’ splashes of red paint.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 28, 2026
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
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
He put his hand on the statue’s pedestal, and a rush of impressions surged through his fingertips.
From "The House of Hades" by Rick Riordan
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
The lower level of the Winners Gallery has cars on pedestals that are banked 9 degrees, 12 minutes—the same as the four banked turns of the racetrack.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 20, 2026
Parisi, together with a team of scientists, explored the limits of pedestals and investigated how much pressure could be applied to plasma inside a fusion reactor before instabilities appeared.
From Science Daily ● May 28, 2024
There are also two “Starry ball” pedestals behind the third rack, to the left and right, worth three points.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 15, 2024
His memory was short; already human beings were back on their rightful pedestals, cornucopias of dog food in their hands.
From "The Incredible Journey" by Sheila Burnford
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
But to Back Bay he is an idol, firmly pedestaled.
From Time Magazine Archive
The trainer swaggered up to a pedestaled tiger, thrust the chair at its open jaws.
From Time Magazine Archive
Coal followed one of the curves to the closest pedestaled mirror.
From "Boy 2.0" by Tracey Baptiste
A young Irishman, primed for the occasion, jumped to his feet with an impassioned harangue that pedestaled Ridgway as the Washington of the West.
From Ridgway of Montana (Story of To-Day, in Which the Hero Is Also the Villain) by William MacLeod Raine
It rises full over the desert; and a vast horizon comes into relief, broken by a huge shape which soon reveals itself in the spreading radiance as a Sphinx pedestalled on the sands.
From Caesar and Cleopatra by Bernard Shaw
She stands pedestalled on the lotus of our heart.
From Sir Jagadis Chunder Bose His Life and Speeches by Sir Jagadis Chandra Bose
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
A body less firmly pedestalled upon powerful legs and scoop-shovel feet would have gone down.
From The Devil's Asteroid by Manly Wade Wellman
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
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
