ash
B2Meanings
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1
verb
to convert into ashes
Are they going to ash the firewood?
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2
noun
Solid remains of a fire.
The audience was more captivated by the growing ash at the end of his cigarette than by his words.
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3
noun
Human (or animal) remains after cremation.
The urn containing his ashes was eventually removed to a closet.
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4
noun
Mortal remains in general.
Napoleon’s ashes are not yet extinguished, and we’re breathing in their sparks.
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5
noun
What remains after a catastrophe.
Now, it's Haiti that needs help to rebuild and rise from the ashes [of an earthquake].
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6
verb
To reduce to a residue of ash. See ashing.
I dried the extracted leather very slowly on the steam bath […] until the substance was dry enough to ash. […] I think that the discrepancy in the percentages of "total ash" by method No. 2 and No. 6 is due to this excessive heat required to ash the leather […]
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7
verb
To hit the end off (a burning cigar or cigarette).
"Nonsense," Mrs. Gardiner challenged, ashing her cigarette.
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8
verb
To cover newly-sown fields of crops with ashes.
Last spring, after I planted, I took what ashes I have saved during the last year, and put on my corn […] . On harvesting I cut up the two rows which were not ashed (or twenty rods of them,) and set them apart from the others in stouts; and then I cut up two rows of the same length, on each side, which had been ashed, […]
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₂eHs-der.? Proto-Germanic *askǭ Proto-West Germanic *askā Old English æsce Middle English asshe English ash From Middle English asshe, from Old English æsċe, from Proto-West Germanic *askā, from Proto-Germanic *askǭ (compare West Frisian jiske, Dutch as, Low German Asch, German Asche, Danish aske, Swedish aska, Norwegian aske), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂eHs-; see it for cognates. The rare plural axen is from Middle English axen, axnen, from Old English axan, asċan (“ashes”) (plural of Old English axe, æsċe (“ash”)).