lay figure—
1. a wooden figure of the human body, used as a model for the arrangement of draperies, etc.:
- Her aunt asked her to stand as a sort of lay figure on which to display them [shawls].
2. smb. of little importance; an insignificant person:
- At chapel the registrar is the important person, and the officiating minister is a mere lay figure.
3. a character in fiction lacking in the attributes of reality:
- The women are not so well drawn as the men, but Mrs. Gall, while conventional, is not a lay figure.
lay person—(also: layman) a non-expert in relation to some particular profession:
- The twentieth century has obliterated the skilled amateur and widened the gap between the technical professional and the lay person.