FOSSIL

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does fossil mean? 

• FOSSIL (noun)
  The noun FOSSIL has 2 senses:

1. someone whose style is out of fashion

2. the remains (or an impression) of a plant or animal that existed in a past geological age and that has been excavated from the soil

  Familiarity information: FOSSIL used as a noun is rare.

• FOSSIL (adjective)
  The adjective FOSSIL has 1 sense:

1. characteristic of a fossil

  Familiarity information: FOSSIL used as an adjective is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• FOSSIL (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Someone whose style is out of fashion

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

dodo; fogey; fogy; fossil

Hypernyms ("fossil" is a kind of...):

golden ager; old person; oldster; senior citizen (an elderly person)

Domain usage:

colloquialism (a colloquial expression; characteristic of spoken or written communication that seeks to imitate informal speech)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The remains (or an impression) of a plant or animal that existed in a past geological age and that has been excavated from the soil

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural objects (not man-made)

Hypernyms ("fossil" is a kind of...):

remains (any object that is left unused or still extant)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "fossil"):

fucoid (a fossilized cast or impression of algae of the order Fucales)

belemnite (a conical calcareous fossil tapering to a point at one end and with a conical cavity at the other end containing (when unbroken) a small chambered phragmocone from the shell of any of numerous extinct cephalopods of the family Belemnitidae)

ammonite; ammonoid (one of the coiled chambered fossil shells of extinct mollusks)

guide fossil; index fossil (a fossil known to have lived in a particular geologic age that can be used to date the rock layer in which it is found)

microfossil (a fossil that must be studied microscopically)

wormcast (fossil trail of a worm)

Derivation:

fossilist (a specialist in paleontology)

fossilize (convert to a fossil)

• FOSSIL (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Characteristic of a fossil

Classified under:

Relational adjectives (pertainyms)

Pertainym:

fossil (the remains (or an impression) of a plant or animal that existed in a past geological age and that has been excavated from the soil)

 Context examples 

Gastaldo and colleagues came to these conclusions after examining the placement of fossil remains in the rock layers of the Karoo Basin.

(Mass extinction of land and sea biodiversity 250 million years ago not simultaneous, National Science Foundation)

This fossil shows us that one of the first waves of GABI happened about 12 million years before our previous record.

(First-ever fossil monkey found in North America, NSF)

You will observe from the cartilage that this is no fossil specimen, but recent.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Since so few fossils have been discovered from that age, the sea monster is a spectacular find.

(Sea Monster Swam Oceans 170 Million Years Ago, Voanews)

There are 216 new species of plants, 93 fishes, 32 amphibians, 19 reptiles, one bird, 20 mammals (two of them fossils).

(Report unveils 381 new plant and animal species in Amazon, Agência Brasil)

A digital reconstruction of the fossil that facilitated its analysis was initiated at Penn State University.

(3.8-million-year-old fossil cranium unveils more about human ancestry, National Science Foundation)

Mass spectrometry-based protein sequencing will enable us to retrieve reliable and rich genetic information from mammal fossils that are millions of years old, rather than just thousands of years old.

(‘Game-changing’ research could solve evolution mysteries, University of Cambridge)

More than 8,000 specimens were studied, and several hundred fossil species were identified.

(Scientists return from expedition to lost continent of Zealandia, National Science Foundation)

Rather than running on fossil fuels, the artificial leaf is powered by sunlight, although it still works efficiently on cloudy and overcast days.

(‘Artificial leaf’ successfully produces clean gas, University of Cambridge)

Like a paleontologist, able to reconstruct an entire skeleton from one fossil bone, he was able to reconstruct a whole speech from the one word revolution.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)