fossil

noun

1. The mineralized remains of an animal or plant.

   “With the permission of the Keeper of the fossil collection, therefore, the specimen was subjected to a further careful removal of the matrix in the requisite directions.”

   “Within the Hepaticae two types of fossils can be distinguished: those with sufficient characters to assign them to an order and those with more obscure characters.”

2. Any preserved evidence of ancient life, including shells, imprints, burrows, coprolites, and organically-produced chemicals.

   “He draws eclectically on studies of baboons, descriptive anthropological accounts of hunter-gatherer societies and, in a few cases, the fossil record.”

   “You know what, we’ve got a limited number of heartbeats in this world so if you’re only truly happy researching fossils and can make it work for you, you go for it.”

3. A fossil word.
4. (figuratively)Anything extremely old, extinct, or outdated.
5. (derogatory, figuratively)An extremely old or outdated person.

   “I do not want to convey any disrespectful notion or slight when I call those good and learned men fossils, but my experience is that people are apt to fossilise even at a University if they follow the same paths too persistently.”

   “All at once there was a tapping at the window pane. Atherton was staring at us from without. He shouted through the glass, ‘Come out of that, you fossils! — I’ve news for you!’”

   ““[…] What have you done with your old fossil?” “M. Poirot has gone to Paris,” I replied coldly. “And I can tell you, M. Giraud, that he is anything but an old fossil. He has solved many cases that have completely baffled the English police.””

name

1. A small city, the county seat of Wheeler County, Oregon, United States.