VESTIGE • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Vestige

Add this Dictionary
to your website!
See more options...

/vˈɛstɪdʒ/ Listen

noun

Vestige n.

The mark of the foot left on the earth; a track or footstep; a trace; a sign; hence, a faint mark or visible sign left by something which is lost, or has perished, or is no longer present; remains; as, the vestiges of ancient magnificence in Palmyra; vestiges of former population. "What vestiges of liberty or property have they left?" "Ridicule has followed the vestiges of Truth, but never usurped her place."

(Biol.) A small, degenerate, or imperfectly developed part or organ which has been more fully developed in some past generation.

Synonyms: Trace; mark; sign; token. Vestige, Trace. These words agree in marking some indications of the past, but differ to some extent in their use and application. Vestige is used chiefly in a figurative sense, for the remains of something long passed away; as, the vestiges of ancient times; vestiges of the creation. A trace is literally something drawn out in a line, and may be used in this its primary sense, or figuratively, to denote a sign or evidence left by something that has passed by, or ceased to exist. Vestige usually supposes some definite object of the past to be left behind; while a trace may be a mere indication that something has been present or is present; as, traces of former population; a trace of poison in a given substance.

See images of 'Vestige'

Etymology of 'Vestige'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

Share |

"Vestige" Quotes from Famous Books

... been concealed, and threw it into the lap of the unhappy daughter." At once she seized it with a degree of phrenzy not to be described; and subsequently, with a bit of sharp shell, disfigured her person in so shocking a manner that in a few minutes not a vestige of her former beauty remained. They afterwards learned that this fellow had married the very woman he had ...

— John Rutherford, the White Chief • George Lillie Craik

... souls that have entered Mars in the early centuries of our earth's historic periods may be living here almost unrecognized. They have drifted into occupations suitable to their genius in some of the many great cities, and no vestige of their past remains. The system of the Registeries is scarcely a century old, and while now from the marvellous industry and persistence of the investigators, the great ones of the neighboring worlds, ...

— The Certainty of a Future Life in Mars • L. P. Gratacap

... didn't know then how to send out ropes on rockets or on cannon-balls, and so the night fell, and the people wrung their hands and left the sea to its prey, and felt as if blue sky could never come again. And with the bright, keen morning not a vestige of the ship, but here a spar and there a door, and on the side of a sand-hill a great dog watching over a little child that he'd kept warm all night. Dan, he'd got up at turn of tide, and walked down,—the sea running ...

— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 9, No. 55, May, 1862 • Various

... me a receipt I'll leave the money at once," he said, with just a vestige of impatience in his tone, as if he were anxious to bring the matter to a conclusion as soon ...

— The Empty House And Other Ghost Stories • Algernon Blackwood

... to both these parallel transactions! Of course it was simple enough to see what had occurred. In 1896 a mysterious man, named Clark, without vestige of right or title, so far as the records showed, had conveyed Ebbe Petersen's property to a man named Keilly, equally unsubstantial, who had passed it over to one O'Rourke. Then Browne had suddenly recorded Mrs. Petersen's deed giving O'Rourke ...

— True Stories of Crime From the District Attorney's Office • Arthur Train

More quotes...