# ash

Pronunciation: say "ASH" /æʃ/

## Noun

1. The gray or white powder left after something has been burned, including the mineral residue left when a sample is burned completely.
   - Simple: The gray powder left after something has burned.
   - _A fine layer of ash settled over the campsite by morning._
   - _Firefighters sifted through the ash looking for the cause of the blaze._
2. The powdery remains of a person's or animal's body after cremation, usually called ashes.
   - Simple: What is left of a dead body after it is burned.
   - _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._
3. Fine particles of pulverized rock and glass ejected from an erupting volcano.
   - Simple: Tiny bits of rock and glass thrown into the air by 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._
4. The remnants that survive a disaster; what is left behind after a catastrophe.
   - Simple: What is left behind after something is destroyed or completely ruined.
   - _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._
5. A 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.
   - Simple: A tall tree with feathery leaves and strong, pale wood, or a similar tree with the same name.
   - _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._
6. The tough, pale, straight-grained wood of the ash tree, valued for tool handles, furniture, and sports equipment.
   - Simple: Strong, pale wood from the ash tree, used for tool handles and baseball bats.
   - _The old workbench was built from seasoned ash that had darkened with age._
   - _Bowyers once prized ash for its springy strength under load._
7. A grayish color resembling the remains of a burned-out fire.
   - Simple: A pale gray color, like the dust left after a 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._

## Adverb

8. Short for as hell or as heck: very or extremely, placed after an adjective for emphasis. *(slang)* — Abbreviation of as hell or as heck.
   - Simple: Short for as hell or as heck: very, put after a word to make it stronger.
   - _The water was cold ash when we jumped in._
   - _She's smart ash and aced every test._

## Verb

9. To knock the burned end off a lit cigarette or cigar.
   - Simple: To knock the burned tip 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._
10. To mark someone with a cross of ashes on the forehead in observance of Ash Wednesday.
   - Simple: To mark a person's forehead with a cross made of ashes for 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._

## Verb

11. To cover freshly sown fields of crops with a layer of ashes. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: To spread ashes over fields right after planting seeds in them.

## Other meanings

- (verb) To reduce a material to a residue of ash, usually through complete burning.
- (noun) The traditional name for the ligature æ, a combined a and e, used in Old English.
- (noun) The relatively stable patterns left over once a random starting configuration, or soup, has finished evolving in a cellular automaton.
- (noun) Another spelling of aush: any of various thick soups of Iranian and Afghan cooking, usually served hot, often containing beans, herbs, or noodles.

## Origin

**Meanings 1–4, 7, 9–11** — 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’.
**Meanings 5–6** — 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.
**Meaning 8** — A shortened written form of "as hell" or "as heck."

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/ash (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).