relique

Noun

relic (plural relics)

1. That which remains; that which is left after loss or decay; a remaining portion.
   • […] 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]...

   Synonyms:

   remnant, remainder, residue, lave, leavings, leftover, ort, remains, remanent, residuum

2. Something old and outdated, possibly kept for sentimental reasons.
   • […] 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...1847 October 16, Currer Bell [pseudonym; Charlotte Brontë], chapter XI, in Jane Eyre. […], volume I, London: Smith, Elder, and Co., […], →OCLC, page 197
3. A part of the body of a saint, or an ancient religious object, kept for veneration.
   • Why ſhould onely I,
     Of all the other Princes of the World,
     Be caſ’d-vp, like a holy Relique?1612–1613 (date written), John Webster, The Tragedy of the Dutchesse of Malfy. […], London: […] Nicholas Okes, for Iohn Waterson, […], published 1623, →OCLC, Act III, scene ii

   Synonyms:

   halidom

4. A particle or entity that has existed since the Big Bang.
   • One of the primary targets of current and especially future cosmological observations are light thermal relics of the hot big bang.2019, Wallisch, Benjamin, “Abstract”, in Cosmological Probes of Light Relics, page ix

See all 6 meanings of relic