Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A subservient or insignificant person.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A jointed figure used by painters, made of wood, cork, etc., in imitation of the human body.
- noun Hence A living person or a character in fiction who lacks individuality, or who is treated merely as a foil or puppet.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A jointed model of the human body used by artists, or to display clothes.
- noun An unimportant person.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun dummy in the form of an artist's jointed model of the human body
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
[From obsolete layman, from Dutch leeman, variant of ledenman : obsolete Dutch led, limb (from Middle Dutch lit) + man, man (from Middle Dutch; see manikin).]
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Examples
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