An object surviving from an earlier time, especially one of historical or sentimental interest. The museum displayed a relic from the ancient Roman Empire.
A part of a deceased holy person's body or belongings kept as an object of reverence. The church housed a relic believed to be a fragment of a saint's bone.
Something—whether an object, custom, practice, or belief—that has survived from a past era but is now outdated or obsolete. Many consider the law a relic of colonial times.