fossil

• POS: Noun
• HYPHEN: fos=sil

CIDE DICTIONARY

fossil, a. [L. fossilis, fr. fodere to dig: cf. F. fossile. See Fosse.].

•  Dug out of the earth; as, fossil coal; fossil salt.  [1913 Webster]
•  preserved from a previous geological age; as, fossil water from deep wells; -- usually implying that the object so described has had its substance modified by long residence in the ground, but also used (as with fossil water) in cases where chemical composition is not altered.  [PJC]
•  Like or pertaining to fossils; contained in rocks, whether petrified or not; as, fossil plants, shells.  [1913 Webster]

Fossil copal, a resinous substance, first found in the blue clay at Highgate, near London, and apparently a vegetable resin, partly changed by remaining in the earth. -- Fossil cork, Fossil flax, Fossil paper, or Fossil wood, varieties of amianthus. -- Fossil farina, a soft carbonate of lime. -- Fossil ore, fossiliferous red hematite. Raymond.

fossil, n. 

•  A substance dug from the earth.  [1913 Webster]

  " Formerly all minerals were called fossils, but the word is now restricted to express the remains of animals and plants found buried in the earth."  Ure.  [1913 Webster]
•  The remains of an animal or plant found in stratified rocks. Most fossils belong to extinct species, but many of the later ones belong to species still living.  [1913 Webster]
•  A person whose views and opinions are extremely antiquated; one whose sympathies are with a former time rather than with the present.  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

fossil, n. & adj.
--n.
1 the remains or impression of a (usu. prehistoric) plant or animal hardened in rock (often attrib. : fossil bones; fossil shells).
2 colloq. an antiquated or unchanging person or thing.
3 a word that has become obsolete except in set phrases or forms, e.g. hue in hue and cry.
--adj.
1 of or like a fossil.
2 antiquated; out of date.

Idiom

fossil fuel a natural fuel such as coal or gas formed in the geological past from the remains of living organisms. fossil ivory see IVORY.

Derivative

fossiliferous adj. fossilize v.tr. & intr. (also -ise). fossilization n.

Etymology

F fossile f. L fossilis f. fodere foss- dig

THESAURUS

fossil

Methuselah, afterglow, afterimage, ancient manuscript, antediluvian, antique, antiquity, archaism, artifact, back number, balance, butt, butt end, candle ends, cave painting, chaff, conservative, dad, debris, detritus, dodo, elder, end, eolith, fag end, filings, fogy, fud, fuddy-duddy, granny, has-been, holdover, husks, leavings, leftovers, longhair, matriarch, mezzolith, microlith, mid-Victorian, mossback, neolith, odds and ends, offscourings, old believer, old crock, old dodo, old fogy, old liner, old man, old poop, old woman, old-timer, orts, paleolith, parings, patriarch, petrification, petrified forest, petrified wood, petroglyph, plateaulith, pop, pops, rags, reactionary, refuse, regular old fogy, relic, relics, reliquiae, remainder, remains, remnant, residue, residuum, rest, roach, rubbish, ruin, ruins, rump, sawdust, scourings, scraps, shadow, shavings, square, starets, stick-in-the-mud, straw, stubble, stump, survival, sweepings, trace, traditionalist, vestige, waste

ROGET THESAURUS

fossil

Oldness

N oldness, age, antiquity, cobwebs of antiquity, maturity, decline, decay, senility, seniority, eldership, primogeniture, archaism, thing of the past, relic of the past, megatherium, Sanskrit, tradition, prescription, custom, immemorial usage, common law, old, ancient, antique, of long standing, time-honored, venerable, elder, eldest, firstborn, prime, primitive, primeval, primigenous, paleolontological, paleontologic, paleoanthropological, paleoanthropic, paleolithic, primordial, primordinate, aboriginal, diluvian, antediluvian, protohistoric, prehistoric, antebellum, colonial, precolumbian, patriarchal, preadamite, paleocrystic, fossil, paleozoolical, paleozoic, preglacial, antemundane, archaic, classic, medieval, Pre-Raphaelite, ancestral, black-letter, immemorial, traditional, prescriptive, customary, whereof the memory of man runneth not to the contr, inveterate, rooted, antiquated, of other times, rococo, of the old school, after-age, obsolete, out of date, out of fashion, out of it, stale, old-fashioned, behind the age, old-world, exploded, gone out, gone by, passe, run out, senile, time worn, crumbling, secondhand, old as the hills, old as Methuselah, old as Adam, old as history, Archeozoic, Proterozoic, Paleozoic, Mesozoic, Cenozoic, Precambrian, Cambrian, Ordovician, Silurian, Devonian, Mississippian, Pennsylvanian, Permian, Triassic, Jurassic, Cretaceous, Tertiary, Paleogene, Neocene, Quaternary, Paleocene, Eocene, Oligocene, Miocene, Pliocene, Pleistocene, Recent, since the world was made, since the year one, since the days of Methuselah, vetera extollimus recentium incuriosi.

Hardness

N hardness, rigidity, renitence, renitency, inflexibility, temper, callosity, durity, induration, petrifaction, lapidification, lapidescence, vitrification, ossification, crystallization, stone, pebble, flint, marble, rock, fossil, crag, crystal, quartz, granite, adamant, bone, cartilage, hardware, heart of oak, block, board, deal board, iron, steel, cast iron, decarbonized iron, wrought iron, nail, brick, concrete, cement, hard, rigid, stubborn, stiff, firm, starch, starched, stark, unbending, unlimber, unyielding, inflexible, tense, indurate, indurated, gritty, proof, adamant, adamantine, adamantean, concrete, stony, granitic, calculous, lithic, vitreous, horny, corneous, bony, osseous, ossific, cartilaginous, hard as a rock, stiff as buckram, stiff as a poker, stiff as starch, stiff as as board.