lay figure

American  

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.

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lay figure British  

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

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Etymology

Origin of lay figure

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 )

Example Sentences

There is not a lay figure in the book; all are flesh and blood creations....

From Horace Chase by Woolson, Constance Fenimore

And in the swing of his narrative his glance, wandering, flickered across Joan's face and on without in the least comprehending her as anything more than a lay figure in a familiar setting.

From Joan Thursday by Vance, Louis Joseph

Matilda's character is drawn well at the start; in the latter part she rather tends to become a lay figure.

From Philip Massinger by Cruickshank, A. H.

"You've made me feel like a lay figure," she laughed.

From Ewing\'s Lady by Wilson, Harry Leon

Why should we have to learn to be musicians, and expend our poetical powers, merely to produce a sort of block, or lay figure, for him to give life and motion to?

From The Serapion Brethren, Vol. I. by Hoffmann, Ernst Theodor Wilhelm