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pedestal

[ped-uh-stl]
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noun
  1. an architectural support for a column, statue, vase, or the like.
  2. a supporting structure or piece; base.
  3. Furniture.
    1. a support for a desk, consisting of a boxlike frame containing drawers one above the other.
    2. a columnar support for a tabletop.
  4. Building Trades. a bulge cast at the bottom of a concrete pile.
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verb (used with object), ped·es·taled, ped·es·tal·ing or (especially British) ped·es·talled, ped·es·tal·ling.
  1. to put on or supply with a pedestal.
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Idioms
  1. set/put on a pedestal, to glorify; idealize: When we first became engaged each of us set the other on a pedestal.
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Origin of pedestal

1555–65; alteration of Middle French piedestal < Italian piedestallo, variant of piedistallo literally, foot of stall. See ped-2, de, stall1
Related formsun·ped·es·tal, verb (used with object), un·ped·es·taled, un·ped·es·tal·ing or (especially British) un·ped·es·talled, un·ped·es·tal·ling.
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for pedestalled

Historical Examples

  • Since the day before, Geoffrey had been for her a figure aureoled and pedestalled—strange transfiguration of the statesman statue!

    Paths of Judgement

    Anne Douglas Sedgwick

  • It was Cromwell's mood, as one who, living under the eye of God, scorned the vapourings of pedestalled mortals.

  • Especially are they needed by the pedestalled woman in her conflict with the natural.

  • The gleam of the torches flickered up gigantic colonnades, pedestalled on beautiful little groups of caryatids.

    The Death of the Gods

    Dmitri Mrejkowski

British Dictionary definitions for pedestalled

pedestal

noun
  1. a base that supports a column, statue, etc, as used in classical architecture
  2. a position of eminence or supposed superiority (esp in the phrases place, put, or set on a pedestal)
    1. either of a pair of sets of drawers used as supports for a writing surface
    2. (as modifier)a pedestal desk
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Word Origin

C16: from French piédestal, from Old Italian piedestallo, from pie foot + di of + stallo a stall
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for pedestalled

pedestal

n.

1560s, "base supporting a column, statue, etc.," from Middle French piédestal (1540s), from Italian piedistallo "base of a pillar," from pie "foot" + di "of" + stallo "stall, place, seat," from a Germanic source (see stall (n.1)).

Spelling in English influenced by Latin pedem "foot." An Old English word for it was fotstan, literally "foot-stone." Figurative sense of put (someone) on a pedestal "regard as highly admirable" is attested from 1859.

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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper

Idioms and Phrases with pedestalled

pedestal

see on a pedestal.

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The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.