FIG LEAF • FREE-TRANSLATOR.COM • Definition of Fig leaf

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noun

fig leaf n.

The leaf from a fig tree.

An ornamental design shaped like the leaf of a fig tree, used in architecture; also, a design shaped like a fig leaf to cover genitalia in sculpture or paintings in reference to the biblical story in Genesis of Adam and Eve, who covered their privates with fig leaves.

Hence: (figurative) Anything used to conceal what is considered embarrassing or indecent. See sense 2.

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Etymology of 'Fig leaf'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Fig leaf" Quotes from Famous Books

... twilight of this new dawn of the love of nature, perhaps the first figure we may descry is Piero di Giovanni Tedesco (1386-1402), who carved the second south door of the Duomo about 1398, where amid so many lovely natural things, the fig leaf and the oak leaf and the vine, you may see the lion and the ox, the dog and the snail, and man too; little fantastic children peeping out from the foliage, or blowing through musical reeds, or playing with a kitten, tiny naked creatures full of life ...

— Florence and Northern Tuscany with Genoa • Edward Hutton

... whole appearance when he rejoined the party in the evening! He came skulking into camp like a beaten cur, with his tail between his legs. All his finery was gone; he was naked as when he was born, with the exception of a scanty flap that answered the purpose of a fig leaf. His fellow-travellers at first did not know him, but supposed it to be some vagrant Root Digger sneaking into the camp; but when they recognized in this forlorn object their prime wag, She-wee-she, whom they had seen depart in the morning ...

— The Adventures of Captain Bonneville - Digested From His Journal • Washington Irving

Words linked to "Fig leaf" : covering, leafage