Skip to main content

Difference between Lay figure and Lay person

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.