Definition of "fossil" []

• A remnant or trace of an organism of a past geologic age, such as a skeleton or leaf imprint, embedded and preserved in the earth's crust. (noun)
• One, such as a rigid theory, that is outdated or antiquated. (noun)
• Linguistics A word or morpheme that is used only in certain restricted contexts, as kempt in unkempt, but is otherwise obsolete. (noun)
• Linguistics An archaic syntactic rule or pattern used only in idioms, as so be it. (noun)
• Characteristic of or having the nature of a fossil. (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.

• "Corallines much resemble fossil or petrified wood; and we recollect to have received from the landlady of an inn at Portsmouth a small branch of _fossil wood_, which she asserted to be _coral_, and"
• "Only the woefully ignorant think that the term fossil is restricted to bones and other body parts that have become encased in stone."
• "The term fossil refers to any preserved remains or imprint of a living organism (usually ancient), such as a bone, shell, footprint, or leaf impression."