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a sculptured female figure used as a column.
Compare atlas (def 5).
Historical Examples

Jean Valjean, who was present, supported the caryatid with his shoulder, and gave the workmen time to arrive.
Les Misrables Victor Hugo

The one on this side is resigned, and as beautiful as a caryatid.
Rodin: The Man and his Art Judith Cladel

She stands in the field like a caryatid, like a symbol of fertile nature.
The History of Modern Painting, Volume 2 (of 4) Richard Muther

I do not know its history, though some one assured me that it was a caryatid.
The Near East Robert Hichens

A restricted use of the caryatid Porch is a certain inference from the following facts.
Problems in Periclean Buildings G. W. Elderkin

It stood probably in the portico and may have served as a caryatid.
Problems in Periclean Buildings G. W. Elderkin

caryatid figures support this order also, turbaned and clothed with tunic and cloak.
The Shores of the Adriatic F. Hamilton Jackson

In a word the caryatid Porch is not an arbitrary creation but is related in thought to the cult of the temple.
Problems in Periclean Buildings G. W. Elderkin

The caryatid form of pier is generally found, in temples, in the peristyles of the fore-courts or the hypostyles of the pronaos.
A history of art in ancient Egypt, Vol. I (of 2) Georges Perrot

caryatid, kar-i-at′id, n. a female figure used instead of a column to support an entablature:—pl.
Chambers’s Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 1 of 4: A-D) Various

noun (pl) -ids, -ides (-ɪˌdiːz)
a column, used to support an entablature, in the form of a draped female figure Compare telamon
n.

“carved female figure used as a column,” 1560s, from Middle French cariatide, from Latin caryatides, from Greek Karyatides (singular Karyatis) “priestesses of Artemis at Caryae” (Greek Karyai), a town in Laconia where dance festivals were held in Artemis’ temple.