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 )

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

lay figure

Jenny compared it with the lay figure in the studio and smiled, thinking how funny they would look together.

From Carnival by Compton MacKenzie

Do you think that because I have adopted art as a profession that I have turned into a lay figure and have no heart at all?

From The Triumph of Jill by F.E. Mills Young

He never used him as a lay figure on which he might display the drapery of a pedant.

From My Unknown Chum by Charles Bullard Fairbanks

Without a sympathetic audience the orator is only a lay figure, without a sympathetic circle of readers the writer is a wasted force.

From The Revival of Irish Literature Addresses by Sir Charles Gavan Duffy, K.C.M.G, Dr. George Sigerson, and Dr. Douglas Hyde by Charles Gavan Duffy

The statue is darkened, and the lay figure of the statue is replaced by the living Jeanne.

From One-Act Plays By Modern Authors by Various

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