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View synonyms for relic

relic

[ rel-ik ]

noun

  1. a surviving memorial of something past.
  2. an object having interest by reason of its age or its association with the past:

    a museum of historic relics.

  3. a surviving trace of something:

    a custom that is a relic of paganism.

  4. relics,
    1. remaining parts or fragments.
    2. the remains of a deceased person.
  5. something kept in remembrance; souvenir; memento.
  6. Ecclesiastical. (especially in the Roman Catholic and Greek churches) the body, a part of the body, or some personal memorial of a saint, martyr, or other sacred person, preserved as worthy of veneration.
  7. a once widespread linguistic form that survives in a limited area but is otherwise obsolete.


relic

/ ˈrɛlɪk /

noun

  1. something that has survived from the past, such as an object or custom
  2. something kept as a remembrance or treasured for its past associations; keepsake
  3. usually plural a remaining part or fragment
  4. RC Church Eastern Churches part of the body of a saint or something supposedly used by or associated with a saint, venerated as holy
  5. informal.
    an old or old-fashioned person or thing
  6. archaic.
    plural the remains of a dead person; corpse
  7. See relict
    ecology a less common term for relict


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Other Words From

  • relic·like adjective

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Word History and Origins

Origin of relic1

1175–1225; Middle English < Old French relique < Latin reliquiae (plural) remains (> Old English reliquias ), equivalent to reliqu ( us ) remaining + -iae plural noun suffix

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Word History and Origins

Origin of relic1

C13: from Old French relique , from Latin reliquiae remains, from relinquere to leave behind, relinquish

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Example Sentences

Blues music is often treated like a museum piece, a relic from a bygone day, but this band will make you want to get up and dance.

Orphans is a true literary relic: a small shapely paperback that is tough to track down, thanks to a limited print run.

And then Further is gone, back on the road, like a time-traveling relic from another era or an apparition of Jerry Garcia.

Enjoy Messi while you can—he might play on for a few years yet but everything he represents is already a relic.

Marrero himself was hardly a “cup of coffee” relic or a minor character belatedly retrieved from the dustbin of baseball history.

No one who visits Salisbury will forget Stonehenge, the most remarkable relic of prehistoric man to be found in Britain.

A relic, saved no doubt from the wreck of the Abbaye de Chelles, stood like an ornament on the chimney-piece.

The Tuscan people set great store by the possession of this relic, and have engraved a representation of it upon their coins.

This is, perhaps, almost beneath the dignity of the love-story, but we have to regard it as a relic.

The Bourg is empty and dark, steeped in black shadows at the door of the chapel where the relic has been laid to rest.

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