ˈfig-leaf
[f. fig n.1 + leaf.]
1. a. The leaf of a fig-tree; chiefly in reference to Gen. iii. 7.
| 1535 Coverdale Gen. iii. 7 They..sowed fygge leaues together. 1675 Wycherley Country Wife ii. (1688) 19, I wou'd as soon look upon a Picture of Adam and Eve, without fig leaves, as any of you. 1854 Lowell Jrnl. in Italy Prose Wks. 1890 I. 116 The evening is so hot that Adam would have been glad to leave off his fig-leaves. |
b. transf. slang. (See quot.)
| 1891 Farmer Slang, Fig-leaf, an apron. In fencing, the padded shield worn over the lower abdomen and right thigh. |
2. fig. A device for concealing something shameful or indecorous; a flimsy disguise. Orig. only in Pl.
| 1553 Latimer Fruitf. Serm. (1584) 296 b, It is all but figge⁓leaues what man can do. 1621 Bacon Submission to Ho. Lords in Rushw. Hist. Coll. (1659) I. 29 Without Fig-leaves I do ingeniously confess and acknowledge, that [etc.]. 1755 Lady M. W. Montagu Lett. (1893) II. 291 Fig-leaves are as necessary for our minds as our bodies. 1843 Lowell Glance bef. Curtain, For men in earnest have no time to waste In patching fig-leaves for the naked truth. 1850 Kingsley Alt. Locke xx, They tore off..even the fig-leaves of decent reticence. c 1856 Emerson Jrnl. in Sel. Writ. (1965) 168 Whipple said of the author of ‘Leaves of Grass’ that he had every leaf but the figleaf. 1897 Daily News 20 Oct. 5/6 Court and country in Spain would rejoice if they succeeded in getting rid of Cuba in a decent..manner. They seek the fig-leaf. 1960 C. W. Mills Castro's Cuba iii. 69 If they had some kind of puppet regime there, they could ‘recognize’ it and arm it. That would be their fig leaf. |
3. attrib., as fig-leaf covering, fig-leaf defence.
| 1648 W. Jenkyn Blind Guide iii. 37 The novice hath..driven you to..a meere Figg-leafe defence. 1698 Sidney Disc. Govt. ii. §21 (1704) 139 These are imperfect Figleave coverings of Nakedness. 1850 Whittier Old Portraits 2 The tearing off of the fig-leaf covering of its sin. |
Hence ˈfigleaf v. trans., to cover with a fig-leaf, or fig-leaves. ˈfig-leaved ppl. a., (a) made of fig-leaves; (b) (see quot. 1820).
| 1880 S. L. Clemens [‘Mark Twain’] Tramp Abroad l. (1881) 515 Yet these ridiculous creatures have been thoughtfully and conscientiously figleaved by this fastidious generation. 1710 Brit. Apollo III. 2/1 Adam made himself a pair of Fig-leav'd Breeches. 1748 Richardson Clarissa Wks. 1883 VII. 309 A husband is a charming cloak, a fig-leaved apron for a wife. 1820 Green Univ. Herb. I. 289 Chenopodium Serotinum, fig-leaved Goosefoot. |