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Webster 1913 Edition


Ash

Ash

(ăsh)
,
Noun.
[OE.
asch
,
esh
, AS.
æsc
; akin to OHG.
asc
, Sw. & Dan.
ask
, Icel.
askr
, D.
esch
, G.
esche
.]
1.
(Bot.)
A genus of trees of the Olive family, having opposite pinnate leaves, many of the species furnishing valuable timber, as the European ash (
Fraxinus excelsior
) and the white ash (
Fraxinus Americana
).
Prickly ash
(
Zanthoxylum Americanum
) and
Poison ash
(
Rhus venenata
)
are shrubs of different families, somewhat resembling the true ashes in their foliage.
Mountain ash
.
See
Roman tree
, and under
Mountain
.
2.
The tough, elastic wood of the ash tree.
Ash is used adjectively, or as the first part of a compound term; as, ash bud,
ash
wood,
ash
tree, etc.

Ash

,
Noun.
,
sing. of
Ashes
.
Ash is rarely used in the singular except in connection with chemical or geological products; as, soda ash, coal which yields a red ash, etc., or as a qualifying or combining word; as, ash bin, ash heap, ash hole, ash pan, ash pit, ash-grey, ash-colored, pearlash, potash.
Bone ash
,
burnt powered; bone earth.
Volcanic ash
.
See under
Ashes
.

Ash

,
Verb.
T.
To strew or sprinkle with ashes.
Howell.

Webster 1828 Edition


Ash

ASH

,
Noun.
1.
A well known tree, of which there are many species. There is no hermaphrodite calyx, or it is quadripartite; and no corol, or it is tetrapetalous. There are two stamens; one pistil; one seed, contained in a membranous, lanceolate capsule, and the pistil of the female flower is lanceolate. The leaves are pinnate, and the capsules grow in cluster. This wood is valuable, for fuel, as well as for timber; and the tree, when it grows in an open field, often forms, with its branches, a beautiful oval figure and a thick shade.
2.
The wood of the ash tree.

ASH

,
Adj.
Pertaining to or like the ash; made of ash.

Definition 2024


Ash

Ash

See also: ash, äsh, and 'ash

English

Proper noun

Ash (plural Ashes)

  1. (Egyptian mythology) The Egyptian god of oases.
  2. A topographic surname for someone who lived near ash trees.
  3. A male given name transferred from the surname.
  4. A diminutive of the female given names Ashley and Ashlee.
  5. A town in Surrey, England, near Aldershot.

Anagrams

ash

ash

See also: Ash, äsh, and 'ash

English

Noun

ash (countable and uncountable, plural ashes)

  1. The solid remains of a fire.
    The audience was more captivated by the growing ash at the end of his cigarette than by his words.
    Ash from a fireplace can restore minerals to your garden's soil.
    Ashes from the fire floated over the street.
    Ash from the fire floated over the street.
  2. (chemistry) The nonaqueous remains of a material subjected to any complete oxidation process.
  3. Fine particles from a volcano, volcanic ash.
  4. (in the plural) Human (or animal) remains after cremation.
    The urn containing his ashes was eventually removed to a closet.
  5. (figuratively) What remains after a catastrophe.
    • 2010 May 6, Jean-Claude Laguerre, “Haiti Will Rise From the Ashes”, in The Epoch Times:
      Now, it's Haiti that needs help to rebuild and rise from the ashes [of an earthquake].
Synonyms
Derived terms
Translations

Verb

ash (third-person singular simple present ashes, present participle ashing, simple past and past participle ashed)

  1. (chemistry) To reduce to a residue of ash. See ashing.
    • 1919, Harry Gordon, Total Soluble and Insoluble Ash in Leather, published in the Journal of the American Leather Chemists Association, W. K. Alsop and W. A. Fox, eds, volume XIV, number 1, on page 253
      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 []
    • 1981, Hans Weill, Margaret Turner-Warwick, and Claude Lenfant, eds, Occupational Lung Diseases: Research Approaches and Methods, Lung Biology in Health and disease, volume 18, page 203
      The inorganic material left after ashing lung tissue specimens not only contains inhaled particles but also very large quantities of inorganic residue derived from the tissue itself.
    • 1989?, Annals of Botany, volume 64, issues 4-6, page 397
      Ash and silica contents of the plant material were determined by classical gravimetric techniques. Tissue samples were ashed in platinum crucibles at about 500 °C, and the ash was treated repeatedly with 6 N hydrochloric acid to remove other mineral impurities.
    • 2010, S. Suzanne Nielsen, ed, Food Analysis, fourth edition, ISBN 978-1-4419-1477-4, Chapter 12, "Traditional Methods for Mineral Analysis", page 213
      A 10-g food sample was dried, then ashed, and analyzed for salt (NaCl) content by the Mohr titration method (AgNO3 + Cl → AgCl). The weight of the dried sample was 2g, and the ashed sample weight was 0.5g.
  2. To hit the end off of a burning cigar or cigarette.
  3. (obsolete, mostly used in the past tense) To cover newly-sown fields of crops with ashes.
    • 1847, H., Ashes on Corn.---An Experiment, published in the Genesee Farmer, volume 8, page 281
      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, []
    • 1849, in a lettre to James Higgins, published in 1850 in The American Farmer, volume V, number 7, pages 227-8
      After the corn was planted, upon acre A, I spread broadcast one hundred bushels of lime, (cost $3) and fifty bushels of ashes, (cost $6.) [] The extra crop of the combination over the limed acre or ashed, was paid by the increased crop, []

Etymology 2

From Middle English asshe, from Old English æsc, from Proto-Germanic *askaz, *askiz (compare West Frisian esk, Dutch es, German Esche, Danish/Swedish ask), from Proto-Indo-European *h₃osk- (compare Welsh onnen, Latin ornus (wild mountain ash), Lithuanian úosis, Russian я́сень (jásenʹ), Albanian ah (beech), Ancient Greek ὀξύα (oxúa, beech), Old Armenian հացի (hacʿi)).

Noun

ash (countable and uncountable, plural ashes)

  1. (countable, uncountable) A shade tree of the genus Fraxinus.
    The ash trees are dying off due to emerald ash borer.
    The woods planted in ash will see a different mix of species.
  2. (uncountable) The wood of this tree.
  3. The traditional name for the ae ligature (æ), as used in Old English.
Derived terms
Synonyms
Translations

See also

Anagrams