lay figures
Preserved but no longer current.
Wooden figures with free joints, used by artists chiefly for the study of how drapery falls. The word was earlier layman, from Dut. leernan, a contraction of ledenman, i.e. led (now lid), a joint, and man, man. Horace Walpqle uses layman (1762), but lay figure had taken its place by the end of the 18th century.
Era: ca. 1898 (Victorian)
Sources & notes
Reproduced from Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898 edition, public domain; archive.org, retrieved 2026-07-31; OCR text, minor errors possible). Reflects the scholarship and attitudes of its era.
Common questions
What does “lay figures” mean?
Wooden figures with free joints, used by artists chiefly for the study of how drapery falls. The word was earlier layman, from Dut. leernan, a contraction of ledenman, i.e. led (now lid), a joint, and man, man. Horace Walpqle uses layman (1762), but lay figure had taken its place by the end of the 18th century.
Is “lay figures” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.