(UK, legal) One of the senior members of the Inns of Court or of Chancery.
(obsolete) A senior; an elder; a predecessor.
Esimerkit
‘I understand that the district was considered a sort of sanctuary,’ the Chief was saying. ‘An Alsatia like the ancient one behind the Strand, or the Saffron Hill before the First World War. […]’
an ancient city; an ancient forest
Buried within the Mediterranean littoral are some seventy to ninety million tons of slag from ancient smelting, about a third of it concentrated in Iberia. This ceaseless industrial fueling caused the deforestation of an estimated fifty to seventy million acres of woodlands.
Energy has seldom been found where we need it when we want it. Ancient nomads, wishing to ward off the evening chill and enjoy a meal around a campfire, had to collect wood and then spend time and effort coaxing the heat of friction out from between sticks to kindle a flame. With more settled people, animals were harnessed to capstans or caged in treadmills to turn grist into meal.
an ancient author; an ancient empire
Though [he] was the youngest brother, yet he was the most ancient in the business of the realm.
They mourned their ancient leader lost.
I got all things ready as he had directed, and waited the next morning with the boat washed clean, her ancient and pendants out, and everything to accommodate his guests..
Junius and Andronicus [...] in Christianity [...] were his ancients.