[f. FIG sb.1 + LEAF.]
1. The leaf of a fig-tree; chiefly in reference to Gen. iii. 7.
1535. Coverdale, Gen. iii. 7. They perceaued that they were naked, and sowed fygge leaues together, and made them apurns.
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, if I cou’d help it, therefore keep off, and do not make us sick.
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, rare in sing.
1553. Latimer, Fruitf. Serm. (1584), 296 b. In times past we were wont to runne hither and thither, to this Saint, and to that Saint, but it is all but figge leaves 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, A Glance behind the 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, of their own will, the peacock’s feathers of gentility, the sheep’s clothing of moderation, even the fig-leaves of decent reticence.
3. attrib., as fig-leaf covering, defence.
1648. Jenkyn, Blind Guide, iii. 37. The novice hath now driven you to another shift, another leafe, a meere Figg-leafe defence.
1698. A. Sidney, Disc. Govt., ii. § 21 (1704), 139. These are imperfect Figleave coverings of Nakedness.
1850. Whittier, Old Portraits, 2. It is the entire unveiling of a human heart; the tearing off of the fig-leaf covering of its sin.
Hence Figleaf v. trans., to cover with a fig-leaf, or fig-leaves. Fig-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 fig-leaved 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.
