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lay figure

noun

a jointed model of the human body, usually of wood, from which artists work in the absence of a living model.

a similar figure used in shops to display costumes.

a person of no importance, individuality, distinction, etc.; nonentity.

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Origin:
1785–95; lay, extracted from obsolete layman < Dutch leeman, variant of ledenman, equivalent to leden- (combining form of lid limb, cognate with Old English, Middle English lith) + man man¹)

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Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Lay figure is always a great word to know.

So is slumgullion. Does it mean:

a stew of meat, vegetables, potatoes, etc.

a scrap or morsel of food left at a meal.

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Collins

World English Dictionary

lay figure

—n
1.	an artist's jointed dummy, used in place of a live model, esp for studying effects of drapery
2.	a person considered to be subservient or unimportant

[C18: from obsolete layman, from Dutch leeman, literally: joint-man]

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Matching Quote

"Is it the breath, merely, of the performer on a wind- instrument, or the skillful, supple fingers of the performer on a stringed instrument which evoke those tones which lay upon us a spell of such power, and awaken that inexpressible feeling, akin to nothing else on earth—the sense of a distant spirit world, and of our own higher life in it? Is it not, rather, the mind, the soul, the heart, which merely employ those bodily organs to give forth into our external life what we feel in our inner depths?"

-E.T.A.W. Hoffmann

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