Emily Dickinson Lexicon

EF'FI-GY, n. [L. effigies, from effingo, to fashion; ex and fingo, to form or devise; Sp. It. and Fr. effigie. See Feign.]

1. The image or likeness of a person; resemblance; representation; any substance fashioned into the shape of a person.
2. Portrait; likeness; figure, in sculpture or painting.
3. On coins, the print or impression representing the head of the prince who struck the coin. To burn or hang in effigy, is to burn or hang an image or picture of the person intended to be executed, disgraced or degraded. In France, when a criminal can not be apprehended, his picture is hung on a gallows or gibbet, at the bottom of which is written his sentence of condemnation. Encyc.