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Entry 6 senses · 2 variants Webster, 1913

Fossil

/fäs'-əl/ · Fos·sil · IPA /ˈfɑsl̩/
01 a. Dug out of the earth; as, fossil coal; fossil salt.
  1. 1.
    Dug out of the earth; as, fossil coal; fossil salt.
  2. 2.
    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.
  3. 3.
    Like or pertaining to fossils; contained in rocks, whether petrified or not; as, fossil plants, shells.(Paleon.)
Phrases & compounds
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 — varieties of amianthus.
Fossil farina — a soft carbonate of lime.
Fossil ore — fossiliferous red hematite.
02 n. A substance dug from the earth.
  1. 1.
    A substance dug from the earth.[Obs.]
  2. 2.
    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.(Paleon.)
  3. 3.
    A person whose views and opinions are extremely antiquated; one whose sympathies are with a former time rather than with the present.[Colloq.]