Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun Ancient times, especially the times preceding the Middle Ages.
- noun The people, especially the writers and artisans, of ancient times.
- noun The quality of being old or ancient; considerable age.
- noun Something, such as an object or a relic, belonging to or dating from ancient times.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun The quality of being ancient; ancientness; great age: as, a family of great antiquity.
- noun Ancient times; former ages; times long since past: as, Demosthenes was the most eloquent orator of antiquity.
- noun The ancients collectively; the people of ancient times.
- noun An old person.
- noun That which is ancient, or belongs to old or ancient times; something left by or peculiar to the ancients: generally in the plural: as, Greek or Egyptian antiquities.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun The quality of being ancient; ancientness; great age
- noun obsolete Old age.
- noun Ancient times; former ages; times long since past.
- noun The ancients; the people of ancient times.
- noun obsolete An old gentleman.
- noun A relic or monument of ancient times; as, a coin, a statue, etc.; an ancient institution. [In this sense, usually in the plural.]
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun Ancient times; former ages; times long since past
- noun The ancients; the people of ancient times.
- noun obsolete An old gentleman.
- noun A relic or monument of ancient times; as, a coin, a statue, etc.; an ancient institution.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun extreme oldness
- noun an artifact surviving from the past
- noun the historic period preceding the Middle Ages in Europe
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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There have been many republics in the past, both in what we call antiquity and in what we call the Middle Ages.
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Nature made me realize, with something of the sense of discovery, how much of what we call antiquity is really a trick of Nature.
Vanishing Roads and Other Essays Richard Le Gallienne 1906
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Antiquitas seculi iuventus mundi; what we call antiquity and are accustomed to revere as such was the youth of the world.
The Idea of Progress An inguiry into its origin and growth 1894
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There have been many republics in the past, both in what we call antiquity and in what we call the Middle Ages.
African and European Addresses Theodore Roosevelt 1888
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In Lent, there was in antiquity a particularly close connection between the celebration of the Divine Office and the Mass.
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And by that I mean anti-homosexuality have their roots in antiquity, and are linked to religious proscriptions against certain sex acts and are thus unconstitutional because it violates the whole no establishment of religion in government thing.
Think Progress » Portugal’s parliament approves same-sex marriage. 2010
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There were Christian Platonists in antiquity who believed in reincarnation.
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And by that I mean anti-homosexuality have their roots in antiquity, and are linked to religious proscriptions against certain sex acts and are thus unconstitutional because it violates the whole no establishment of religion in government thing.
Think Progress » Portugal’s parliament approves same-sex marriage. 2010
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They have circulated all over the known world in antiquity and since through trade and collector markets.
A Time to Speak Out – Will Ancient Coins from Italy be Restricted? : Coin Collecting News 2010
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I wished there had been more detail on the frames but we realised that the makers were probably lost in antiquity as just nameless craftsmen.
Vermeer and Rembrandt at the Vancouver Art Gallery « Colleen Anderson 2009
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