Definify.com
Webster 1913 Edition
Fossil
1.
Dug out of the earth;
as,
fossil
coal; fossil
salt.3.
(Paleon.)
Like or pertaining to fossils; contained in rocks, whether petrified or not;
as,
. fossil
plants, shellsFossil 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
, Fossil flax
, Fossil paper
, or Fossil wood
varieties of amianthus.
– Fossil farina
, a soft carbonate of lime.
– Fossil ore
, fossiliferous red hematite.
Raymond.
Fos′sil
,Noun.
1.
A substance dug from the earth.
[Obs.]
☞ Formerly all minerals were called fossils, but the word is now restricted to express the remains of animals and plants found buried in the earth.
Ure.
2.
(Paleon.)
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.
3.
A person whose views and opinions are extremely antiquated; one whose sympathies are with a former time rather than with the present.
[Colloq.]
Webster 1828 Edition
Fossil
FOS'SIL
,Adj.
1.
Dug out of the earth; as fossil coal; fossil salt. The term fossil is now usually appropriated to those inorganic substances, which have become penetrated by earthy or metallic particles. Thus we say, fossil shells, fossil bones, fossil wood.2.
That may be taken from the earth by digging.FOS'SIL
,Noun.
Fossils are native or extraneous. Native fossils are minerals, properly so called, as earth, salts, combustibles and metallic bodies. Extraneous fossils are bodies of vegetable or animal origin accidentally buried in the early, as plants, shells, bones and other substances, many of which are petrified.