FIGUREHEAD • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Figurehead

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/fˈɪgjərhˌɛd/ Listen

noun

Figurehead n.

(Naut.) The figure, statue, or bust, on the prow of a ship.

A person who allows his name to be used to give standing to enterprises in which he has no responsible interest or duties; a nominal, but not real, head or chief.

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Etymology of 'Figurehead'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Figurehead" Quotes from Famous Books

... was often little more than a figurehead, equaled, or perhaps surpassed, in power by some of his own vassals. But in England, France, Spain, and other countries a series of astute and energetic sovereigns were able to strengthen their authority at the expense of the nobles. They formed permanent armies by insisting that all ...

— EARLY EUROPEAN HISTORY • HUTTON WEBSTER

... eaves, and through them you saw the warrior holding his paddle with both hands in the act of rowing, leaning forward and inclining his head, as if eager to hurry on his voyage. Glaring at him forever, and face to face, was a polished human skull, which crowned the prow of the canoe. The spectral figurehead, reversed in its position, glancing backwards, seemed to mock the impatient ...

— Typee - A Romance of the South Sea • Herman Melville

... through he was by an idea both pregnant and ingenious, naturally bethought himself that if the enterprise failed, the blame must fall upon somebody. For which reason, it occurred to him to put forward a figurehead director in charge of his commercial machinery. At this day you know the secret of the firm of Claparon and Company, founded by du Tillet, ...

— The Firm of Nucingen • Honore de Balzac

... which had set the wires to humming. On the sixth day it was noised about that Senator Duvall had transferred his controlling interest to Rumford—otherwise to the Universal Oil Company; that he had served only as a figurehead in the transaction, using his standing, social and political, to secure the charter which had been denied Rumford ...

— The Grafters • Francis Lynde

... have the key to the large popularity of the delusion—as I think it. We have long ceased in England to take much interest in saints, and in the recent revival of the cultus of St. George, the saint is little more than a patriotic figurehead. And the appeal to the saints to succour us is certainly not a common English practice; it is held Popish by most of our countrymen. But angels, with certain reservations, have retained their popularity, and so, when it was settled that the English army in ...

— The Angels of Mons • Arthur Machen

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