Ar"chive (&?;), n.; pl. Archives (&?;). [F. archives, pl., L. archivum, archium, fr. Gr. &?; government house, &?; &?; archives, fr. &?; the first place, government. See Archi-, pref.] 1. pl. The place in which public records or historic documents are kept.

Our words . . . . become records in God's court, and are laid up in his archives as witnesses.
Gov. of Tongue.

2. pl. Public records or documents preserved as evidence of facts; as, the archives of a country or family.

[Rarely used in sing.]

Some rotten archive, rummaged out of some seldom explored press.
Lamb.

Syn. -- Registers; records; chronicles.

• A place for storing earlier, and often historical, material. An archive usually contains documents (letters, records, newspapers, etc.) or other types of media kept for historical interest.
  
• To put into an archive.
        I was planning on archiving the documents from 2001.