Statue of Liberty

American  

noun

1. a large copper statue, on Liberty Island, in New York harbor, depicting a woman holding a burning torch: designed by F. A. Bartholdi and presented to the U.S. by France; unveiled 1886.

2. Also called Statue of Liberty play.  Football. a play in which a back, usually the quarterback, fakes a pass, and a back or end running behind him takes the ball from his upraised hand and runs with it.

---

Statue of Liberty British  

noun

1. Official name: Liberty Enlightening the World.  a monumental statue personifying liberty, in New York Harbor, on Liberty Island: a gift from France, erected in 1885

---

Statue of Liberty Cultural  

1. A giant statue on an island in the harbor of New York City; it depicts a woman representing liberty, raising a torch in her right hand and holding a tablet in her left. At its base is inscribed a poem by Emma Lazarus that contains the lines “Give me your tired, your poor, / Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” Frederic Bartholdi, a Frenchman, was the sculptor. France gave the Statue of Liberty to the United States in the nineteenth century; it was shipped across the Atlantic Ocean in sections and reassembled. The statue was overhauled and strengthened in the 1980s.

---

Discover More

For many immigrants who came to the United States by ship in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the Statue of Liberty made a permanent impression as the first landmark they saw as they approached their new home.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

Statue of Liberty

A thick haze of smoke blocked views across the New York City region including MetLife stadium, the Empire State Building and the Statue of Liberty.

From BBC ● Jul. 17, 2026

While imagining scenarios, he came up with an arresting image for the Trojan horse, “listing over in the sand” in a way that intentionally echoes the Statue of Liberty in “Planet of the Apes.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 7, 2026

Techno music and lasers brought the Statue of Liberty to life as a light show at the iconic monument will be broadcast Friday to mark the United States' 250th anniversary.

From Barron's ● Jul. 3, 2026

At the summit is a streamlined nickel-chromium spire whose concentric curves and spiky windows quote the crown of the Statue of Liberty.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 27, 2026

They travel south past the Wall Street skyscrapers, past Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty, past Bayonne, New Jersey, and the Bay Ridge Channel and under the Verrazano Bridge.

From "Dreaming in Cuban" by Cristina García