VESTIGE • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Vestige

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/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.

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Etymology of 'Vestige'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Vestige" Quotes from Famous Books

... vestige of the dragoon's Christmas festivity. It may be urged that the enjoyments of which I have endeavoured to give a faithful narrative are gross and have no elevating tendency. I fear the men of the spur and sabre must bow to the justice ...

— Camps, Quarters, and Casual Places • Archibald Forbes

... finished my work of splitting, studying, and deciphering the fragments of the old pine, I went to the sawmill and arranged for the men to come over that evening after I had departed and burn every piece and vestige of the venerable old tree. I told them I should be gone by dark. Then I went back and piled into a pyramid every fragment of root and trunk and broken branch. Seating myself upon this pyramid, I spent some time that ...

— Wild Life on the Rockies • Enos A. Mills

... do not afford any satisfactory information concerning the original foundation of this city. The first time that we hear of it is in the year 286 B.C.; but we have no account of the era or cause of its desertion. Although Mahagam is the only vestige of an ancient city in this district, there are many ruined buildings and isolated dagobas of great antiquity scattered throughout the country. I observed on a peak of one of the Kattregam hills large masses of fallen brickwork, the ruins of some former buildings, probably coeval with Mahagam. ...

— The Rifle and The Hound in Ceylon • Samuel White Baker

... of a trained brute, whom he had set his heart on conquering. I knew as no one else there knew what the victory meant to him, and the memory of the brief glimpse I had had of the Van Wyck girl's face when he lay in the ring inflamed me anew. I know not what—some vestige of my thought reached him, for he drew me toward him and when I bent my head he whispered ...

— Paradise Garden - The Satirical Narrative of a Great Experiment • George Gibbs

... was a Californian of immense wealth and unbounded confidence in himself, and letters to people in New York had given him a certain entree. The triumphs in love and finance that had come with his two score years and ten had demolished every vestige of timidity that may have been born with him. He was successful enough in the world of finance to have become four or five times a millionaire, and he had fared so well in love that twice he had been a widower. Rodney Grimes was starting out to win Barbara with the same dash and ...

— Brewster's Millions • George Barr McCutcheon

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