- the parts of a dead animal or a plant that have become hard and turned into rock
- fossils over two million years old
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- (informal, disapproving) an old person, especially one who is unable to accept new ideas or adapt to changes
Word Originmid 16th cent. (denoting a fossilized fish found, and believed to have lived, underground): from French fossile, from Latin fossilis ‘dug up’, from fodere ‘dig’.
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fossil