Definition of "ancient" []

• Of great age; very old. (adjective)
• Of or relating to times long past, especially those of the historical period before the fall of the Western Roman Empire (A.D. 476). See Synonyms at old. (adjective)
• Old-fashioned; antiquated. (adjective)
• Having the qualities associated with age, wisdom, or long use; venerable. (adjective)
• A very old person. (noun)
• Dating from very long ago (adjective)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• Very old; aged (adjective)
• Of the far past, esp before the collapse of the Western Roman Empire (476 ad) (adjective)
• Having existed since before the time of legal memory (adjective)
• A member of a civilized nation in the ancient world, esp a Greek, Roman, or Hebrew (noun)
• One of the classical authors of Greek or Roman antiquity (noun)
• An old man (noun)

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• ""_All magistrates, who have been_ unjustly turned out, shall _forthwith resume their former_ employments; as well as all the boroughs of England shall return again to _their ancient prescriptions and charters_, and, more particularly, that _the ancient_ charter of the great and famous city of London shall again be in force; and that the writs for the members of Parliament shall be addressed to the _proper officers, according to law and custom_.""
• "II. i.286 (46,8) [This ancient morsel] For _morsel_ Dr. Warburton reads _ancient moral_, very elegantly and judiciously, yet I know not whether the author might not write _morsel_, as we say a _piece of a man_."
• "The term ancient Greece refers to the period of Greek history lasting from the Greek Dark Ages ca. 1100 BC and the Dorian invasion, to 146 BC and the Roman conquest of Greece after the Battle of Corinth."