Relic Meaning
/ˈɹɛlɪk/Definition, CEFR level C1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounThat which remains; that which is left after loss or decay; a remaining portion.
nounSomething old and outdated, possibly kept for sentimental reasons.
Sentence Examples
The faithful believe that this relic is imbued with healing properties.
War is a disgusting relic of humanity's bestial past.
CEFR Practice Quiz
The museum displayed a stone ____ from the ancient temple that was over 2000 years old.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The museum displayed a ____ from the medieval period that had been discovered during excavations.
Word Origin & History
From Middle English relik et al., from Old French relique, from Latin reliquiae (“remains, relics”), from relinquō (“to leave behind, abandon, relinquish”), from re- + linquō (“to leave, quit, forsake, depart from”). Doublet of relict, derelict, and relinquish.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"[…] let him not ask our pardon;
The nature of his great offence is dead,
And deeper than oblivion we do bury
The incensing relics of it […]"
— c. 1604–1605 (date written), William Shakespeare, “All’s Well, that Ends Well”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene iii]:
"Though a Cup of cold water from ſome hand may not be without it's reward, yet ſtick not thou for Wine and Oyl for the Wounds of the Distreſſed, and treat the poor, as our Saviour did the Multitude, to the reliques of ſome baskets."
— c. 1670s (date written), Thomas Brown [i.e., Thomas Browne], “(please specify the section)”, in John Jeffery, editor, Christian Morals, […], Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: […] [A]t the University-Press, for Cornelius Crownfield printer to the University; and are to be sold by Mr. Knapton […]; and Mr. [John] Morphew […], published 1716, →OCLC, part I, page 5:
"She exerted the last relics of her wasted strength to gain a prominent position upon a ledge of the rocks behind her […]"
— 1850, Wilkie Collins, chapter 1, in Antonina, or, The Fall of Rome, volume I, London: Richard Bentley, pages 10–11:
"[T]hey know that the low social level of the mass of the race is responsible for much discrimination against it, but they also know, and the nation knows, that relentless color-prejudice is more often a cause than a result of the Negro’s degradation; they seek the abatement of this relic of barbarism, and not its systematic encouragement and pampering by all agencies of social power from the Associated Press to the Church of Christ."
— 1903 April 18, W[illiam] E[dward] Burghardt Du Bois, “Of Mr. Booker T. Washington and Others”, in The Souls of Black Folk: Essays and Sketches, Chicago, Ill.: A[lexander] C[aldwell] McClurg & Co., →OCLC, page 53:
"[…] the imperfect light entering by their narrow casements showed bedsteads of a hundred years old; chests in oak or walnut, looking, with their strange carvings of palm branches and cherubs’ heads, like types of the Hebrew ark; rows of venerable chairs, high-backed and narrow; stools still more antiquated, on whose cushioned tops were yet apparent traces of half-effaced embroideries, wrought by fingers that for two generations had been coffin-dust. All these relics gave to the third storey of Thornfield Hall the aspect of a home of the past: a shrine of memory."
— 1847 October 16, Currer Bell [pseudonym; Charlotte Brontë], chapter XI, in Jane Eyre. An Autobiography. […], volume I, London: Smith, Elder, and Co., […], →OCLC, page 197:
Explore More C1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The museum displayed a stone ____ from the ancient temple that was over 2000 years old.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The museum displayed a ____ from the medieval period that had been discovered during excavations.