definitions

museum piece

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR museum piece ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

something suitable for keeping and exhibiting in a museum.
something very old-fashioned or decrepit: That car he drives is a museum piece.

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RELATED WORDS

antique, classic, curio, heirloom, masterpiece, showpiece

Nearby words

muses, musette, musette bag, museum, museum beetle, museum piece, museumgoer, museveni, musgrave, mush, mush area

Origin of museum piece

First recorded in 1900–05
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

British Dictionary definitions for museum piece

museum piece

noun

an object of sufficient age or interest to be kept in a museum
informal a person or thing regarded as antiquated or decrepit
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Idioms and Phrases with museum piece

museum piece

An elderly or old-fashioned item or person, as in When are you going to sell that museum piece of a car? or Aunt Jane comes from another era—she's a real museum piece. This expression originated about 1900 for an article valuable enough for museum display but began to be used disparagingly from about 1915.

The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.