FOSSIL

a. n.

5 definitions — Webster’s Dictionary (1828)


1.
a.

Dug out of the eart; as, fossil coal; fossil salt.

2.
a.

Like or pertaining to fossils; contained in rocks. whether petrified or not; as, fossil plants, shells. 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, flax, paper, or wood, varieties of amianthus. -- Fossil farina, a soft carbonate of lime. -- Fossil ore, fossiliferous red hematite. Raymond.

3.
n.

A substance dug from the earth. [Obs.]

4.
n.

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.

5.
n.

A person whose views and opinions are extremely antiquated; one whose sympathies are with a former time rather than with the present. [Colloq.]


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