# ashing

Pronunciation: say "ASH-ing" /ˈæʃɪŋ/

## Verb

1. Present participle and gerund of ash. — present participle and gerund of ash
   - Simple: Present participle and gerund of ash. Use this -ing form for the action happening now or named as a thing.
   - _The lab spent the afternoon ashing soil samples to measure their mineral content._
   - _Ashing the organic material left only a small residue behind._

## Noun

2. A laboratory procedure in which a sample is heated in a furnace until only a residue of ash remains, used to measure mineral content or to prepare it for further analysis.
   - Simple: A lab method that burns a sample down until only ash is left behind.
   - _Ashing revealed that the flour contained about one percent mineral matter._
   - _The analyst chose ashing to remove organic material before measuring trace metals._

## Origin

Formed from "ash" combined with the suffix "-ing."

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