ash
Pluralashes
Pluralashes
- 1The gray or white powder left after something has been burned, including the mineral residue left when a sample is burned completely.
A fine layer of ash settled over the campsite by morning.
Firefighters sifted through the ash looking for the cause of the blaze.
UsageAsh and ashes both work for what a fire leaves; cigarette ash is the usual phrase.
- 2The powdery remains of a person's or animal's body after cremation, usually called ashes.
The family kept his ashes in a small wooden box for years.
The crematorium returned an urn holding a few pounds of fine gray ash.
UsageWith ashes, use a plural verb: his ashes were scattered.
Similarremains
- 3Fine particles of pulverized rock and glass ejected from an erupting volcano.
The wind carried ash hundreds of miles from the volcano's summit.
Crops failed where ash buried the fields after the eruption.
- 4The remnants that survive a disaster; what is left behind after a catastrophe.
Out of the ashes of the old regime, a fragile democracy began to form.
When the merger collapsed, years of careful planning turned to ash.
UsageMostly in rise from the ashes and out of the ashes of; things can also turn to ash.
Similarruins, wreckage, remains, remnants, rubble
Note
Jean-Claude Laguerre's 2010 headline in The Epoch Times, "Haiti Will Rise From the Ashes," applied it to the earthquake. It looks forward to recovery rather than back at the loss.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
- Jean-Claude Laguerre's headline “Haiti Will Rise From the Ashes” appeared in The Epoch Times in 2010 and concerned recovery after the earthquake. en.wiktionary.org
- 5A tree of the genus Fraxinus, with compound leaves and tough, pale wood; also any of several similar trees called ash, such as the mountain ash.
A row of ash trees lined the avenue and turned golden in autumn.
The gardener pruned the young ash to encourage a single straight trunk.
UsageSay ash tree when the fire meaning could get in the way: a row of ash trees.
Note
The tree has its own Old English word, æsċ, separate from the ash of a fire despite the shared spelling. Its cousins are German Esche, Dutch es, Swedish ask and Latin ornus, a wild mountain ash.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 6 facts
- The tree word ash descends from Old English æsċ. en.wiktionary.org
- The tree word has a different etymology from ash meaning combustion residue. en.wiktionary.org
- German Esche and Dutch es are cognates of English ash. en.wiktionary.org
- Swedish ask is cognate with English ash. en.wiktionary.org
- Latin ornus is cognate with the Old English tree word. en.wiktionary.org
- Latin ornus means wild mountain ash. lrc.la.utexas.edu
- 6The tough, pale, straight-grained wood of the ash tree, valued for tool handles, furniture, and sports equipment.
The old workbench was built from seasoned ash that had darkened with age.
Bowyers once prized ash for its springy strength under load.
Similarashwood
- 7A grayish color resembling the remains of a burned-out fire.
The designer chose a muted ash for the lobby's upholstery.
She chose a soft ash for the bedroom walls, a shade somewhere between silver and smoke.
Less common meanings
- 8Short for as hell or as heck: very or extremely, placed after an adjective for emphasis.
The water was cold ash when we jumped in.
She's smart ash and aced every test.
UsageFollows an adjective in informal texts and posts: cold ash, tired ash.
- 9To knock the burned end off a lit cigarette or cigar.
She leaned out the window to ash her cigarette into the night.
Between sentences, he leaned over and ashed his cigarette into the empty coffee cup.
UsageThe object is the cigarette or cigar: ash a cigarette, ash into a cup.
Note
A novelist's stage direction as much as a smoker's habit, because characters ash a cigarette while deciding what to say. In Kenneth Cook's Wake in Fright (1961), a man covers his awkwardness by "making a business of ashing his cigarette." In C.J. Koch's The Year of Living Dangerously, Hamilton ashes his cigar and studies the end before speaking.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 5 facts
- Kenneth Cook wrote Wake in Fright. en.wikipedia.org
- Wake in Fright was first published in 1961. textpublishing.com.au
- The quoted wording occurs in narrative describing a man responding self-consciously after staring at a woman. en.wiktionary.org
- C.J. Koch wrote The Year of Living Dangerously. en.wikipedia.org
- Hamilton ashes his cigar and studies its end during a pause before speaking. en.wiktionary.org
- 10To mark someone with a cross of ashes on the forehead in observance of Ash Wednesday.
Each year, lay volunteers help the minister ash hundreds of parishioners before noon.
At the noon service, the priest ashed each parishioner who came forward, tracing a small cross on every forehead.
UsageMostly passive: go to be ashed, get ashed on Ash Wednesday.
Note
On Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent, the faithful go to be ashed and leave with a cross on their foreheads.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- Ash Wednesday is the first day of Lent. en.wikipedia.org
- Worshippers receive an ash cross on their foreheads during the Ash Wednesday rite. uniting.church
- 11To cover freshly sown fields of crops with a layer of ashes.
Note
A farm verb found in the 1840s that has since dropped out of use. Writers in American agricultural journals reported spreading ashes on corn. A contributor to the Genesee Farmer (1847) set apart "two rows which were not ashed," and a letter in The American Farmer compared a limed acre with one ashed. It turns up mostly as a participle; modern English would say the fields were dressed with ashes.
Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 2 facts
- American agricultural journals reported applying ashes to corn. en.wiktionary.org
- A letter in The American Farmer compared limed and ashed acres. en.wiktionary.org
- 12To reduce a material to a residue of ash, usually through complete burning.
- 13The traditional name for the ligature æ, a combined a and e, used in Old English.
- 14The relatively stable patterns left over once a random starting configuration, or soup, has finished evolving in a cellular automaton.
- 15Another spelling of aush: any of various thick soups of Iranian and Afghan cooking, usually served hot, often containing beans, herbs, or noodles.
Showing meanings only.
Practice
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Origins
From Middle English asshe, from Old English æsċe, going back through Proto-West Germanic *askā and Proto-Germanic *askǭ (compare Dutch as, German Asche, Danish aske) probably to Proto-Indo-European *h₂eHs-. The rare plural axen comes from Old English axan, ‘ashes’.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 5 facts
- Ash descends from Middle English asshe and Old English æsċe. en.wiktionary.org
- The Germanic ancestry runs through Proto-West Germanic *askā and Proto-Germanic *askǭ. en.wiktionary.org
- Dutch as, German Asche and Danish aske are cognates. en.wiktionary.org
- A probable further connection is Proto-Indo-European *h₂eHs-. en.wiktionary.org
- The plural axen descends from Old English axan, meaning ashes. en.wiktionary.org
From Old English æsċ, 'ash tree', from Proto-Germanic *askaz, related to German Esche and Dutch es. The letter æ took the same name from the Old English rune ᚫ, called æsc, which it was used to write.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 4 facts
- Ash in the tree sense derives from Old English æsċ and ultimately Proto-Germanic *askaz. en.wiktionary.org
- Old English æsċ meant ash tree. en.wiktionary.org
- German Esche and Dutch es are cognates of ash. en.wiktionary.org
- The letter æ was named æsc after the Old English rune ᚫ, which it transliterated. en.wikipedia.org
A shortened written form of "as hell" or "as heck."
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
- Ash is a written abbreviation of "as hell" or "as heck". en.wiktionary.org