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Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. Ecology An organism or species of an earlier time surviving in an environment that has undergone considerable change.
  2. n. Something that has survived; a remnant.
  3. n. A widow.
  4. adj. Geology Of or relating to something that has survived, as structures or minerals after destructive processes.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. n. One who is left or who remains: a survivor.
  2. n. Specifically, a widower or widow, especially a widow.
  3. n. A thing left behind; a relic.
  4. Left; remaining; surviving.
  5. To leave.
  6. In phytogeography, persisting in a limited area only: said of an endemic plant which at an earlier period had a much wider range.
  7. In physical geography, left as a result of erosion; residual: said of mountains the form of which is due to the erosion of neigh boring valleys, as mountains of circumdenudation, and especially isolated residual mountains or monadnocks.

Wiktionary

  1. n. formal Something which, or someone who, survives or remains or is left over after the loss of others; a relic.
  2. adj. Surviving, remaining.
  3. adj. That is a relict; pertaining to a relict.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. n. A woman whose husband is dead; a widow.

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. an organism or species surviving as a remnant of an otherwise extinct flora or fauna in an environment much changed from that in which it originated
  2. n. geological feature that is a remnant of a pre-existing formation after other parts have disappeared

Etymologies

  1. From Latin relictus, past participle of relinquō ("I leave behind, abandon, relinquish"), from re- + linquō ("I leave, quit, forsake, depart from"). (Wiktionary)
  2. From Middle English relicte, left undisturbed, from Latin relictus, past participle of relinquere, to leave behind; see relinquish. Sense 3, Middle English relicte, from Medieval Latin relicta, from feminine past participle of Latin relinquere. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Examples

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synonyms (1)

Words with the same meaning

  1. widow

hypernyms (4)

Words that are more generic or abstract

  1. being
  1. organism
  1. geological formation
  1. formation

same context (18)

Words that are found in similar contexts

  1. leecher
  2. proofreader
  3. moping
  1. paribus
  2. entreatment
  3. black-brown
  1. man!
  2. fellow-citizen
  3. fichu
  1. chatelaine
  2. continuator
  3. dubiousness
  1. whip-poor-will
  2. intermittence
  3. peculium
  1. dslr
  2. follows
  3. embassage

reverse dictionary (1)

Words that contain this word in their definition

  1. refugium

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Lists

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Comments

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  • bilby Recently Lict? Jun 4, 2012

  • yarb I left them together, telling the steward's relict that I would join her again at the playhouse, as soon as I had sent my baggage to the Marquis de Marialva's, to whose residence she directed me.

    - Lesage, The Adventures of Gil Blas of Santillane, tr. Smollett, bk 7 ch. 8 Oct 1, 2008

  • gangerh So, is a widower derelict? Feb 3, 2008

  • gangerh Yes, Minerva, have just seen it on a memorial stone from the early 1800s as 'relict of this parish'. Presumably the definition above 'a living thing that has, or can develop,the ability to act or function after other parts have disappeared' covers this. !!!! Feb 3, 2008

  • minerva Also a widow. Dec 4, 2007

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‘relict’ has been looked up 1997 times, loved by 4 people, added to 26 lists, commented on 5 times, and has a Scrabble score of 8.