pedestal
Americannoun
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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:
"Putting yourself on a pedestal is not going to help this conversation. Public trust is not something you're entitled to, you earn it. Actions have consequences."
From BBC ● Jun. 26, 2026
Where the MT1 puts small on a pedestal, the Slate Truck worships simple.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 20, 2026
Don Colossus stands proud atop a stone pedestal, keeping vigil over a small commemorative plaque.
From Slate ● Jun. 2, 2026
There’s a tendency to put mothers on a pedestal and we judge them harshly over every decision they make.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 15, 2026
Dylan continues to the second pedestal where a bowl of clay sits.
From "Amari and the Night Brothers" by B.B. Alston
Displaying them overhead or enshrined on pedestals, as at MoMA, is more dramatic and less ambiguous than propping them against gallery walls.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 30, 2026
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
They chose to paint it “quetzal,” a rich aqua color that serves as a uniting element for the room’s other pedestals.
From New York Times ● May 2, 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
A row of pedestals runs down the middle, leading to a tall red door in the middle of the back wall.
From "Amari and the Night Brothers" by B.B. Alston
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
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
Why comes temptation, but for man to meet And master and make crouch beneath his foot, And so be pedestaled in triumph?
From Familiar Quotations A Collection of Passages, Phrases, and Proverbs Traced to Their Sources in Ancient and Modern Literature by Bartlett, John
It was Cromwell's mood, as one who, living under the eye of God, scorned the vapourings of pedestalled mortals.
From The Path of the King by Buchan, John
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 Symons, Arthur
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 Flecker, James Elroy
A body less firmly pedestalled upon powerful legs and scoop-shovel feet would have gone down.
From The Devil's Asteroid by Wellman, Manly Wade
Tuscarora County was put through its paces for a gaping world; Clinton's Ditch—"well-spring of New York's commercial supremacy, gentlemen"—shown in rosiest apotheosis; the Empire State pedestalled imperially among the nations.
From The Henchman by Luther, Mark Lee
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.
