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RELIC
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Something of sentimental value
Synonyms:
keepsake; relic; souvenir; token
Classified under:
Nouns denoting man-made objects
Hypernyms ("relic" is a kind of...):
object; physical object (a tangible and visible entity; an entity that can cast a shadow)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "relic"):
love-token (keepsake given as a token of love)
favor; favour; party favor; party favour (souvenir consisting of a small gift given to a guest at a party)
Sense 2
Meaning:
An antiquity that has survived from the distant past
Classified under:
Nouns denoting man-made objects
Hypernyms ("relic" is a kind of...):
antiquity (an artifact surviving from the past)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "relic"):
archeological remains; remains (a relic that has been excavated from the soil)
Context examples:
"Such a man!" laughed good-natured Mrs. K., as she put the relics in the rag bag.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
Indeed, I can assure you that a first folio of Shakespeare could not be treated with greater reverence than this relic has been since it came into my possession.
(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
The icy relics comprise about 4 percent of the parent comet and range in size from roughly 65 feet wide to 200 feet wide.
(Hubble Takes Close-up Look at Disintegrating Comet, NASA)
Our Milky Way Galaxy is littered with these stellar relics, called planetary nebulae.
(Hubble Views a Colorful Demise of a Sun-like Star, NASA)
With trembling hand I conveyed the instruments out of the room, but I reflected that I ought not to leave the relics of my work to excite the horror and suspicion of the peasants; and I accordingly put them into a basket, with a great quantity of stones, and laying them up, determined to throw them into the sea that very night; and in the meantime I sat upon the beach, employed in cleaning and arranging my chemical apparatus.
(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)
Aye, I remember it all now; all, except your saving this relic—I knew nothing of that till this moment—but the cutting the finger, and my recommending court-plaister, and saying I had none about me!
(Emma, by Jane Austen)
They might be useful to me as relics of my adventure, said he, but beyond that I can hardly see what use the disjecta membra of my late acquaintance are going to be to me.
(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
My business was to declare myself a scoundrel, and whether I did it with a bow or a bluster was of little importance.— 'I am ruined for ever in their opinion—' said I to myself—'I am shut out for ever from their society, they already think me an unprincipled fellow, this letter will only make them think me a blackguard one.' Such were my reasonings, as, in a sort of desperate carelessness, I copied my wife's words, and parted with the last relics of Marianne.
(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)
It is nothing smaller than the Crocodile Book, which is in rather a dilapidated condition by this time, with divers of the leaves torn and stitched across, but which Peggotty exhibits to the children as a precious relic.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
Why, masters, quoth he, this man is a coquillart, or seller of false relics, and was here in the smithy not two hours ago.
(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
