noun
definition
A carved figure on the prow of a sailing ship.
definition
(by extension) Someone in a nominal position of leadership who has no actual power; a front or front man.
Examples of figurehead in a Sentence
They were not so contemptible at the time, because England and Ireland were full of adventurers who were ready to back any cause, and who looked on the king of the moment as no more than a successful member of their own classa base-born Welshman who had been lucky enough to become the figurehead of the movement that had overturned an unpopular usurper.
When the truth was discovered, a revolution in heaven occurred; God is now a doddering figurehead and another angel reigns.
That the theory of the triple manifestation of the deity was indeed only a compromise between Brahmanical aspirations and popular worship, probably largely influenced by the traditional sanctity of the number three, is sufficiently clear from the fact that, whilst Brahma, the creator, and at the same time the very embodiment of Brahmanical class pride, has practically remained a mere figurehead in the actual worship of the people, Siva, on the other hand, so far from being merely the destroyer, is also the unmistakable representative of generative and reproductive power in nature.
But if Wales is to really establish itself worldwide, we will need a rather more convincing figurehead than Rhodri.
She is the figurehead, relying on her popularity to aid in the marketing of the perfume.
The drum major is more than just a figurehead.
He evaded the clause in the constitution prohibiting the election of a president for successive terms of office by invariably arranging for the nomination of some adherent of his own as chief of the executive, and then pulling the strings behind this figurehead.
This led to the explanation of the name as derived from the head of an ox having served as the galley's figurehead.
Of the later wards ' Anson ' was, from 1836, dominated by the preserved figurehead of his ship centurion.
In the subsequent fifty years he was to become a figurehead for the growing Pentecostal Movement, leading missions all over the world.
We also have the figurehead of the Terra Nova in our collections.
Mao remained the figurehead of what was still a relatively popular regime.
He showed Andy photographs of the ship's original figurehead which had been taken in his father's workshop, some 60 years earlier.
The Royalists in England had a new figurehead in the north.
The last part of his talk mentioned that while working on a particular female figurehead he unusually took deliver of another.
I also believe that an artist can have more of an impact on society as a whole then any politician or political figurehead.
All that's left is the relic, the national figurehead.
That is message from a Norfolk " chippy " boss who has become a national figurehead for fish friers.
She later moved to the multi award winning Sky World News as the anchor newsreader where she is still the figurehead.
The promissione ducale was binding on the doge and his family, and could be, and frequently was, altered at each new election, a commission, Inquisitori sopra it doge def unto, being appointed to scrutinize the actions of the deceased doge and to add to the new oath whatever provisions they thought necessary to reduce the dogeship to the position of a mere figurehead in the state.
Awkward and uncourtly, at heart shy, he was but a poor figurehead for the stately court of France.
Because Sisko is regularly contacted by these aliens, he is unwillingly given the title of Emissary, a religious figurehead position he uncomfortably accepts.As the seasons progress, more information about the gamma quadrant is learned.
This derivation is, however, fanciful; the name bucentaurus is unknown in ancient mythology, and the figurehead of the bucentaurs, of which representations have come down to us, is the lion of St Mark.
Arabi, as has been said, was rather the figurehead than the inspirer of the movement of 1881-1882; and was probably more honest, as he was certainly less intelligent, than those whose tool, in a large measure, he was.
Seldom had a good cause such an unworthy figurehead as that callous and apathetic prince.