[f. *lay (abstracted from LAYMAN2) + FIGURE sb.] A jointed wooden figure of the human body, used by artists as a model for the arrangement of draperies, posing, etc.
1795. T. Hurlstone, Crochet Lodge, 49. The latter, in passing behind the Lay-figure, pushes it, and the Landlord down together. Miss Crotchet. Heav’n’s! my niece’s Lay-figure is destroyed.
1851. Illustr. Catal. Gt. Exhib., 1239. Lay figures of men and women … for artists.
1855. Mrs. Gaskell, North & S., i. Her Aunt asked her to stand as a sort of lay figure on which to display them [shawls].
1877. Mrs. Oliphant, Makers Flor., xiv. 351. Fra Bartolommeo was the inventor of the lay figure.
b. fig. A person of little intrinsic importance, a ‘nonentity’; a character in fiction destitute of the attributes of reality.
1835. Court Mag., VI. 166/2. Let me … guard myself against any possible imputation of hostility towards my proposed lay-figure.
1859. Helps, Friends in C., Ser. II. I. i. 20. I feel more for the mother, who is but a lay-figure, than for the daughter.
