FIGUREHEAD • DICCIONARIO INGLES.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

... eight-hundred-ton craft. Her mainsail was looped up, and her topsail flapped undecidedly in what little wind was moving. Now a bark is feminine beyond all other daughters of the sea, and this tall, hesitating creature, with her white and gilt figurehead, looked just like a bewildered woman half lifting her skirts to cross a muddy street under the jeers of bad little boys. That was very much her situation. She knew she was somewhere in the neighbourhood of the Virgin, had caught the roar of it, ...

— "Captains Courageous" • Rudyard Kipling

... the circumstances, quite unnecessary, seeing that the child was sound asleep. The captain then dried his head and face with a towel about as rough as the mainsail of a seventy-four, and with a violence that would have rubbed the paint off the figurehead of the Red Eric. Then he sat down to his chart, and having pondered over it for some minutes, he went to the foot of the companion-ladder and roared up—"Lay the course ...

— The Red Eric • R.M. Ballantyne

... including Madame Caradori, Miss Paton, Miss Bacon, Henry Phillips (the veteran and popular singer of later days, but who was then only in his 25th year), Signor Curioni (said to have borne a wonderful resemblance to Shakespeare in his figurehead and features), Signor de Begius, Mr. John Baptiste Cramer, C.G. Kiesewetter (who died the following year), Charles Augustus de Beriot (who married Madame Malibran-Garcia), and quite a host of local instrumentalists who were long chief among our Birmingham musicians. Receipts L10,104; ...

— Showell's Dictionary of Birmingham - A History And Guide Arranged Alphabetically • Thomas T. Harman and Walter Showell

... I inspected her next. It was grand with the figurehead of a long, wooden lady leaning out obliquely with ever-staring eyes, her hands ...

— Tramping on Life - An Autobiographical Narrative • Harry Kemp

... you were, and smart too," answered Silver, shaking hands so heartily that all the barrel shook, "and a finer figurehead for a gentleman of fortune I ...

— Treasure Island • Robert Louis Stevenson

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