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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

... plenty and perfection, see, of grass Never was! Such a carpet as, this summer-time, o'erspreads And embeds Every vestige of the city, guessed alone, Stock or stone— 30 Where a multitude of men breathed joy and woe Long ago; Lust of glory pricked their hearts up, dread of shame Struck them tame; And that glory and that shame alike, the gold ...

— Browning's Shorter Poems • Robert Browning

... are seen, remains of abandoned rooms that have fallen into decay. Occasionally a rough, buttress-like projection from a wall is the only vestige of a room or a cluster of rooms, all traces on the ground ...

— A Study of Pueblo Architecture: Tusayan and Cibola • Victor Mindeleff and Cosmos Mindeleff

... the Jewish nation disrupted. Jerusalem was taken; the Temple had become a ruin. The last vestige of independence seemed to have been wiped out. All who had taken up arms were either dead, or enslaved, or banished. The infuriated Roman conquerors had spared neither the women nor the children. It seemed as if Judaism had breathed her last in that terrible year 70. ...

— The Menorah Journal, Volume 1, 1915 • Various

... Stewart, "yet the chief must have been overpersuaded. Look here!" and the colonel held forth a scrap of paper. Amy Lawrence, hearing something like the gasp of a sufferer in sudden pain, turned quickly and saw that every vestige of color had left Mrs. Garrison's face—that she was almost reeling on the step. Before she could call attention to it, Armstrong, who had taken and glanced curiously at the scrap, whirled suddenly, and his eyes, in stern menace, swept the spot where the little lady ...

— Found in the Philippines - The Story of a Woman's Letters • Charles King

... The astonished gaze and grin with which it greeted me warranted such an assumption, but when it suddenly turned and bolted through the hole into the beehive, I observed that it had no tail—not even a vestige of such a creation,—and thus discovered that it was a "Tottie," or Hottentot boy. The sublime, the quaint, the miserable, the ridiculous, and the beautiful, were before me in that scene. Let me expound these ...

— Six Months at the Cape • R.M. Ballantyne

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