diff --git a/.changeset/7874-timeline-relative-defaults-retired.md b/.changeset/7874-timeline-relative-defaults-retired.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..c817d5fbe8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.changeset/7874-timeline-relative-defaults-retired.md
@@ -0,0 +1,29 @@
+---
+---
+
+Internal residue removal, no published behaviour: the five `timeline.relative.*`
+rows are deleted from `TIMELINE_DEFAULT_TRANSLATIONS`
+(`packages/plugin-timeline/src/useTimelineTranslation.ts`), and a retirement pin
+replaces them.
+
+The rows, transcribed verbatim because that — not "it is in git history
+somewhere" — is what makes the deletion reversible:
+
+```ts
+'timeline.relative.today': 'Today',
+'timeline.relative.tomorrow': 'Tomorrow',
+'timeline.relative.yesterday': 'Yesterday',
+'timeline.relative.inDays': 'In {{n}} days',
+'timeline.relative.daysAgo': '{{n}} days ago',
+```
+
+Nothing releases because nothing could reach them. The `en` pack defines no
+`timeline.relative.*` leaf, so the provider path never served one; no call site
+anywhere in the tree — sources, tests, JSON, ignored build outputs — asks for the
+prefix `timeline.relative`, so the provider-less `fallbackT` never reached a row
+either; and neither `TIMELINE_DEFAULT_TRANSLATIONS` nor `translateTimelineDefault`
+is re-exported from the package entry, so no consumer of the tarball can name
+them. Day-granularity relative phrases are produced by `formatRelativeDate` in
+`@object-ui/core` through `Intl.RelativeTimeFormat`, which needs no copy row —
+that is what left these five behind (objectui#7874, found by objectui#7567's
+factory-default census printing its abstention count).
diff --git a/packages/plugin-timeline/src/__tests__/timeline-relative-defaults-retired-7874.test.ts b/packages/plugin-timeline/src/__tests__/timeline-relative-defaults-retired-7874.test.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..9255619597
--- /dev/null
+++ b/packages/plugin-timeline/src/__tests__/timeline-relative-defaults-retired-7874.test.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,175 @@
+/**
+ * ObjectUI
+ * Copyright (c) 2024-present ObjectStack Inc.
+ *
+ * This source code is licensed under the MIT license found in the
+ * LICENSE file in the root directory of this source tree.
+ */
+
+/**
+ * The five `timeline.relative.*` rows are retired from
+ * `TIMELINE_DEFAULT_TRANSLATIONS` as residue (objectui#7874). Same shape as the
+ * retirement-pin series in `@object-ui/i18n` (objectui#4392, objectui#4730,
+ * objectui#5504, objectui#6310, objectui#7125): the retired rows asserted
+ * absent, plus surviving-sibling assertions so a green here cannot be bought by
+ * deleting the neighbourhood.
+ *
+ * ## What was removed — transcribed verbatim, which is what makes it reversible
+ *
+ * The deletion is safe because it is reversible, and it is reversible because
+ * the content is written down HERE — not because "it is in git history
+ * somewhere". The five rows, exactly as they stood in
+ * `useTimelineTranslation.ts` before this change:
+ *
+ * ```ts
+ * 'timeline.relative.today': 'Today',
+ * 'timeline.relative.tomorrow': 'Tomorrow',
+ * 'timeline.relative.yesterday': 'Yesterday',
+ * 'timeline.relative.inDays': 'In {{n}} days',
+ * 'timeline.relative.daysAgo': '{{n}} days ago',
+ * ```
+ *
+ * ## Why they are residue, re-measured on the retiring branch
+ *
+ * Not inherited from the card — re-run against `origin/main` at `83fe6e741`:
+ *
+ *   - **No `en` leaf.** `packages/i18n/src/locales/en.ts` defines no
+ *     `timeline.relative.*` key, so the provider path could never serve one
+ *     either; `timeline.bucket.*` and `timeline.scale.*` are fully defined there.
+ *   - **No caller, by PREFIX not by full key.** Searching the prefix
+ *     `timeline.relative` over the whole tree — sources, tests, JSON, ignored
+ *     build outputs included, `node_modules` excluded — returned exactly the five
+ *     declaration lines and nothing else. The prefix is what a dynamically
+ *     assembled key (`` t(`timeline.relative.${x}`) ``) would leave behind, and
+ *     the tree carries no template-literal `t()` call at all.
+ *   - **Positive control on that search.** The same command shape, run for
+ *     `timeline.bucket.overdue` / `timeline.scale.week` / `timeline.gantt.rowLabel`,
+ *     returned their call sites in `ObjectTimeline.tsx` and `renderer.tsx`. A
+ *     search that has not been shown to fire is not a measurement.
+ *   - **The job moved to a formatter, not to other copy.** Day-granularity
+ *     relative phrases ("Today", "Tomorrow", "3 days ago") are produced by
+ *     `formatRelativeDate` / `formatRelativeDays` in `@object-ui/core`
+ *     (`utils/date-display.ts`) through `Intl.RelativeTimeFormat`, which needs no
+ *     copy row in any pack. That is what left these five behind.
+ *
+ * ## Why this pin is NEGATIVE, and why it is needed at all
+ *
+ * Nothing in the repo can see these rows — that is the whole reason they
+ * survived, and it is equally true of them coming back:
+ *
+ *   - `scripts/check-i18n-call-site-keys.mjs`'s `missing-key` class judges CALL
+ *     SITES; a table row with no call site is structurally out of its reach.
+ *   - `all-locales-key-parity.test.ts` compares the ten packs to EACH OTHER; ten
+ *     packs identically lacking a key is full parity, hence green.
+ *   - `scripts/check-i18n-dead-keys.mjs` sweeps PACK keys with no call site;
+ *     these keys are in no pack to be swept (and it is report-only anyway).
+ *   - `defaults-maps-mirror-en-pack.test.tsx` (objectui#4401) would catch a
+ *     defaults row the `en` pack does not define — but it gates the detail, list
+ *     and designer maps, and `TIMELINE_DEFAULT_TRANSLATIONS` is not among them.
+ *
+ * They were surfaced only by objectui#7567's census PRINTING its abstention
+ * count (5 of 846 factory-table rows). Re-adding them would be silent again, and
+ * "the timeline should say Today" is a plausible way for someone to put them
+ * back, so the pin is the guard.
+ *
+ * ## What this file does NOT claim
+ *
+ * - **It does not forbid relative-date copy.** Wiring the timeline's relative
+ *   dates through `t()` is a FEATURE — it needs copy, plural rules and locale
+ *   coverage across all ten packs, and the pack keys come first so
+ *   `all-locales-key-parity.test.ts` demands the other nine. If that is what you
+ *   are doing, delete this file with the card that does it; do not restore rows
+ *   that no call site asks for as a shortcut.
+ * - **It does not assert anything about the `en` pack.** These keys were never
+ *   in it, so their absence there is not this retirement's doing and pinning it
+ *   would forbid the feature card above.
+ * - **`timeline.bucket.today` / `timeline.bucket.tomorrow` are DIFFERENT keys**
+ *   that happen to carry the same two strings, `'Today'` and `'Tomorrow'`. A
+ *   sweep by VALUE rather than by key takes them out as collateral, and the
+ *   bucket header is a live render (`ObjectTimeline.tsx`). {@link SURVIVING}
+ *   pins them for that reason.
+ */
+import { describe, it, expect } from 'vitest';
+
+import {
+  TIMELINE_DEFAULT_TRANSLATIONS,
+  translateTimelineDefault,
+} from '../useTimelineTranslation';
+
+/** The retired rows, fully qualified, with the exact strings they carried. */
+const RETIRED: Readonly<Record<string, string>> = {
+  'timeline.relative.today': 'Today',
+  'timeline.relative.tomorrow': 'Tomorrow',
+  'timeline.relative.yesterday': 'Yesterday',
+  'timeline.relative.inDays': 'In {{n}} days',
+  'timeline.relative.daysAgo': '{{n}} days ago',
+};
+
+/** The family prefix — what a dynamically assembled key would resolve onto. */
+const RETIRED_PREFIX = 'timeline.relative.';
+
+/**
+ * Rows the deletion swept around, each confirmed live by a `t()` call site
+ * rather than by sitting nearby: the two bucket headers that carry the same
+ * strings as retired rows (`ObjectTimeline.tsx`), the gantt axis vocabulary
+ * (`renderer.tsx`) and the gantt row label (`renderer.tsx`).
+ */
+const SURVIVING: Readonly<Record<string, string>> = {
+  'timeline.bucket.today': 'Today',
+  'timeline.bucket.tomorrow': 'Tomorrow',
+  'timeline.scale.week': 'Week {{n}}',
+  'timeline.gantt.rowLabel': 'Items',
+};
+
+describe('the timeline relative-date defaults are retired as residue (objectui#7874)', () => {
+  it('reads a table with rows in it', () => {
+    // Non-vacuity, #4118 family standard: every assertion below reads the table,
+    // so an unresolved import or an emptied table is green without this.
+    expect(Object.keys(TIMELINE_DEFAULT_TRANSLATIONS).length).toBeGreaterThan(10);
+  });
+
+  it('carries no `timeline.relative.*` row, by key and by prefix', () => {
+    const revived = Object.keys(TIMELINE_DEFAULT_TRANSLATIONS).filter(
+      (key) => key.startsWith(RETIRED_PREFIX) || key in RETIRED,
+    );
+    // Named, not counted, and prefix-wide: a row re-added under a NEW leaf of the
+    // same family (`timeline.relative.inWeeks`) is the same defect as restoring
+    // one of the five.
+    expect(
+      revived,
+      'A `timeline.relative.*` row is back in TIMELINE_DEFAULT_TRANSLATIONS. ' +
+        'These rows have no `en` leaf and no call site, so `fallbackT` can never ' +
+        'be asked for one — and no i18n gate in this repo can see that, because ' +
+        'each of them runs call site -> key, pack -> pack, or pack -> call site ' +
+        '(objectui#7874). Relative day phrases come from `formatRelativeDate` in ' +
+        '@object-ui/core via Intl.RelativeTimeFormat. If the timeline is genuinely ' +
+        'growing translated relative dates, author it as a feature — pack keys in ' +
+        'all ten locales plus the call sites that read them — and delete this file ' +
+        'with that card.',
+    ).toEqual([]);
+  });
+
+  it('answers a retired key with the key itself, not with its old string', () => {
+    // The behavioural half: `translateTimelineDefault` falls through to the raw
+    // key for a row it does not carry. Asserting the OLD VALUE is gone (rather
+    // than only that the table lacks the key) is what a half-revert — the row
+    // restored under a renamed key — would trip over.
+    for (const [key, formerValue] of Object.entries(RETIRED)) {
+      expect(translateTimelineDefault(key), key).toBe(key);
+      expect(translateTimelineDefault(key), key).not.toBe(formerValue);
+    }
+  });
+
+  it('leaves the live rows that carry the same strings alone', () => {
+    const swept = Object.entries(SURVIVING)
+      .filter(([key, value]) => TIMELINE_DEFAULT_TRANSLATIONS[key] !== value)
+      .map(([key, value]) => `${key} (expected ${JSON.stringify(value)})`);
+    expect(
+      swept,
+      'A live timeline default is gone or drifted. `timeline.bucket.today` and ' +
+        '`timeline.bucket.tomorrow` carry the same two strings the retired rows ' +
+        'did — a sweep by VALUE rather than by key is exactly how the wrong rows ' +
+        'go, and these two render the bucket headers on every feed timeline.',
+    ).toEqual([]);
+  });
+});
diff --git a/packages/plugin-timeline/src/useTimelineTranslation.ts b/packages/plugin-timeline/src/useTimelineTranslation.ts
index 195f143734..c02661e28d 100644
--- a/packages/plugin-timeline/src/useTimelineTranslation.ts
+++ b/packages/plugin-timeline/src/useTimelineTranslation.ts
@@ -23,11 +23,15 @@ export const TIMELINE_DEFAULT_TRANSLATIONS: Record<string, string> = {
   'timeline.bucket.later': 'Later',
   'timeline.bucket.noDate': 'No date',
   'timeline.bucket.unassigned': 'Unassigned',
-  'timeline.relative.today': 'Today',
-  'timeline.relative.tomorrow': 'Tomorrow',
-  'timeline.relative.yesterday': 'Yesterday',
-  'timeline.relative.inDays': 'In {{n}} days',
-  'timeline.relative.daysAgo': '{{n}} days ago',
+  // objectui#7874 — the five `timeline.relative.*` rows are retired as residue.
+  // They had no `en` leaf and no call site anywhere in the tree, so `fallbackT`
+  // could never be asked for one: they rendered for nobody. Day-granularity
+  // relative phrases are produced by `formatRelativeDate` (`@object-ui/core`)
+  // through `Intl.RelativeTimeFormat`, which needs no copy row at all. The five
+  // keys and their exact default strings are transcribed in
+  // `__tests__/timeline-relative-defaults-retired-7874.test.ts`, which also pins
+  // them absent — every i18n gate here runs call site -> key, so none of them
+  // can see a dead row come back.
   // Gantt axis vocabulary (objectui#4520). These were `Week ${n}` and
   // `Q${q} ${year}` template literals in `renderer.tsx`, so a zh session read
   // an English bucket label beside the Chinese date axis objectui#4513 had just