pedestal

Etymology

From Middle French piédestal, from Italian piedistallo (pie "foot" di "of" stallo "stand") "footstand".

noun

1. (architecture) The base or foot of a column, statue, vase, lamp.
2. (figurative) A place of reverence or honor.
   He has put his mother on a pedestal. You can't say a word against her.
3. (rail transport) A casting secured to the frame of a truck of a railcar and forming a jaw for holding a journal box.
4. (machining) A pillow block; a low housing.
5. (bridge building) An iron socket, or support, for the foot of a brace at the end of a truss where it rests on a pier.
6. (steam heating) a pedestal coil, group of connected straight pipes arranged side by side and one above another, used in a radiator.
7. (telecommunications) A ground-level housing for a passive connection point for underground cables.
8. (electronics) The measured value when no input signal is given.
9. (aviation) The central part of the cockpit, between the pilots, where various controls are located.
10. The tough protuberant pad covering a dromedary's sternum, which, when the camel lies down, causes the abdomen to be slightly above the hot ground.

verb

1. To set or support on (or as if on) a pedestal.