| 释义 |
▪ I. ash, n.1|æʃ|
Forms: 1–2 æsc, (3 asse, 4 aychs,) 4–5 assch(e, asch(e, 4–6 assh(e, 4–7 ashe, (5 aish, esche, 6 ach,) 6– ash.
[Common Teut.: OE. æsc is cogn. with ON. askr, OHG. ask, MHG. asch, mod.G. esche, OTeut. *ask-oz.]
1. a. A well-known forest tree, indigenous to Europe, Western Asia, and North Africa, and noted in Teutonic literature from the earliest times; having silver-grey bark, graceful pinnate foliage, a peculiar winged seed or samara called the ‘ash-key,’ and very tough close-grained wood valuable for implements.
b. The tribe of trees Fraxineæ, family Oleaceæ, including the common ash (Fraxinus excelsior) with several American species, and the manna or flowering ashes (Ornus Europæa and rotundifolia).
c700Epinal Gloss. 416 Fraxinus, aesc. 935Chart. æthelstan in Cod. Dipl. V. 221 On ðæne ealdan æsc. a1300W. de Biblesworth in Wright Voc. 171 De frene, of asse. c1305St. Kenelm 171 in E.E.P. (1862) 52 A gret asch..stent in þulke place. c1380Sir Ferumb. 5248 Þe Emperour him liȝt a-doun anon, Vnder an Aychs. c1386Chaucer Knt.'s T. 2064 Wilw, elm, plane, assh. 1440Promp. Parv., Esche, fraxinus. 1504Plumpton Corr. 188 The okes are sold..& the aches. 1596Spenser F.Q. i. i. 9 The warlike beech; the ash for nothing ill. 1769Sir J. Hill Fam. Herbal (1812) 16 The Manna Ash is a lower tree than the common ash. 1847Blackwell Malet's North. Antiq. 413 (tr. Edda) The ash Yggdrasill..is the greatest and best of all trees. Its branches spread over the whole world, and even reach above heaven. 1866Johns in Treas. Bot. 506 Several American species of ash resemble the European ash in general appearance and qualities. 1872Oliver Elem. Bot. ii. 207 The wood of the Ash is very tough and elastic, and valued by cart- and wheelwrights.
2. The wood or timber of the ash-tree.
c1380Wyclif Sel. Wks. (1871) III. 500 An ymage..of oke or of asshe. c1450Merlin xxii. 390 A grete growe spere of aish. 1823P. Nicholson Pract. Builder 260 Ash is a species of wood very common in Britain. [See also 5.]
†3. The ashen shaft of a spear; a spear. Obs.
a1000Beowulf 3548 æscum and ecᵹum. 1607Shakes. Cor. iv. v. 114 That body, where against My grained Ash an hundred times hath broke. 1700Dryden Pal. & Arcite iii. 513 The tourney is allowed but one career Of the tough ash, with the sharp-grinded spear.
4. ground ash,
a. An ash sapling.
b. Applied locally to various umbelliferous herbs with pinnate leaves, esp. the ashweed or bishopweed, and wild angelica (Britten and Holl.) mountain ash, synonym of the rowan-tree or quickbeam (Pyrus Aucuparia); formerly also occas. of the aspen (Populus tremula), called also quaking ash. wild ash, identified by the herbalists sometimes with the mountain ash, sometimes with the Ornus of the continent.
1552Huloet, Ashe called a wylde ashe with greate leaues, Ornus. 1562Turner Herbal ii. 71 a, Wild ashe trees grow in the rooky or craggi mountaynes. 1578Lyte Dodoens 748 Pliny and Columella calleth it Ornus, and Fraxinus, syluestris..In English, Quickebeame, feelde Ashe, wild Ashe, and white Ashe. 1794Martyn Rousseau's Bot. xxi. 291 Mountain Ash and the Service..have pinnate or winged leaves like the Ash. 1814Wordsw. Excurs. vii. 709 The Mountain Ash..lifts her head Decked with autumnal berries.
5. Comb. (chiefly attrib.), as ash-bud, ash-plank, ash-spear, ash-staff, ash-tree, ash-wood; and in many OE. compounds, in sense 3, as æsc-here a company armed with spears, æsc-pleᵹa ‘spear-play,’ war, æsc-róf ‘spear-famed,’ noble. Also ash-fly, ash-grub, a fly and grub found on the ash-tree and used by anglers; ash-key, the winged two-celled seed or samara of the ash-tree; ash-leaf, an early potato with leaves resembling those of the ash.
a1000Judith 217 (Bosw.) æt ðam æscpleᵹan. Ibid. 337 Eorlas æscrófe. 1398Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xvii. lxii. (1495) 639 Yf a serpent be sette bytwene a fyre and asshe leuys: he woll fle in to the fire. 1440Promp. Parv., Asche tre, Fraxinus. c1589Plaine Perc. (1860) 3 With a quarter Ashe staffe on my shoulder. 1805Scott Last Minstr. iii. vi, The tough ash-spear, so stout and true. 1842Tennyson Gardener's Dau. 28 More black than ashbuds in the front of March. 1879Cassell's Techn. Educ. IV. 130/1 The timbers..commonly in use in our carriage factories are English ash-plank.
1787T. Best Angling (ed. 2) 24 Oak-fly, Ash fly, or Wood⁓cock fly, found on the body of an Oak or Ash. Ibid. 19 Bark-worm, or Ash-grub. 1676Cotton Angler ii. 353 The Ash-grub..is plump, milkwhite..with a red head. 1440Promp. Parv., Esch key, Clava in fractinus. 1562Turner Herbal ii. 6 a, Called in Inglishe ashe keyes because they hang in bunches after the manner of keyes. 1795Barker in Phil. Trans. LXXXV. 412 The hedge fruits were in great abundance, excepting ash-keys. 1843G. Darling in Proc. Berw. Nat. Club II. 77 The delicate early ash-leaved kidney. 1845Morn. Chron. 22 Nov. 5/2 The Wimborne kidneys..are not springing like the ash-leafs.
▪ II. ash, n.2|æʃ|
commonly in pl. ashes |ˈæʃɪz|. Forms: sing. 1 asce, 1–3 axe, 2–3 aske, 4 esche, esssse, aische, asch, 4–6 ashe, 4– ash (north. 3–6 asse; Sc. 6 as, alse, 6– ass). pl. α. 1 ascan, axsan, 2 æscan, 2–6 axan, -en, 3 acxen, axin, 3–4 asken, 3–5 asshen, 4 aishen, 4–5 aisshen, -chin, aschen, -yn, 6 axsen (9 dial. axen, -an). β. 3 (Orm.) asskess, 3–5 askes, 4 axses, axes, assches, aschis, 4–5 askys, -is, 4–6 asshes, 5 aisshes, aysshes, aischis, 6 (Sc. asses, -is), 5– ashes.
[Common Teut.: OE. asce, axe is cogn. w. ON. aska, Da. aske, OHG. asgâ, ascâ, MHG. asche, Goth. azgo, OTeut. *azgôn. The northern aske was prob. the Norse word; thence also asse, like Sc. buss for busk.]
1. The powdery residue, composed chiefly of earthy or mineral particles, left after the combustion of any substance.
a. pl.
αc1000Ags. Ps. ci. 10 Ic anlic ætt æscean hlafe. c1000Sax. Leechd. I. 334 Heortes hornes axan. c1230Ancr. R. 214 Þe ȝiscare..lið euer iðen asken. c1386Chaucer Sqr.'s T. 247 It was Wonder to maken of fern Asshen [v.r. aschyn, aisshen, aschen] glas. 1483Caxton Gold. Leg. 224/2 A loof baken under asshen. 1578Lyte Dodoens 271 [Dill] made into axsen. 1597Gerard Herbal ii. cxlvii. (1633) 429 The axen or ashes. 1863W. Barnes Poem in Dorset Dial. in Sat. Rev. 124 The fleäme's red peaks, till axan white Did quench em.
β1200Ormin 1001 Tatt lac wass brennd And turrnedd all till asskess. c1325E.E. Allit. P. B. 626 Vnder askeȝ ful hote. 1366Mandeville xxviii. 289 Undir the assches there offe. 1413Lydg. Pylgr. Sowle ii. lviii. 56 Hit brenneth in to asshes. 1513Douglas æneis ii. xi. (x.) 52 Fillit with assis reid. 1562J. Heywood Prov. & Epigr. (1867) 22, I proud, and thou proud, who shall beare thashes out. 1697Dryden Virg. Georg. i. 118 Sprinkle sordid Ashes all around. 1716–8Lady Montague Lett. II. xliii. 14 The hot ashes commonly set the house on fire. 1806Coleridge Christabel, The brands were dying, Amid their own white ashes lying.
b. collective sing.
1250Lay. 25989 Al bi-walewed in axe. 1297R. Glouc. 536 Hii sende Al the brut aske withoute. a1300E.E. Psalter ci. 10 Aske as bred I et. a1300Havelok 2840 Sket was [he] on þe asse leyd..And brend til asken. 1382Wyclif Amos ii. 1 He brente the bonys of the Kyng of Ydume vn to ash. c1450Henryson Mor. Fables 5 Scraping among the Ashe. 1535Stewart Cron. Scot. (1858) I. 7 Also thair principall toun, Brynt it in as. 1548Compl. Scot. 21 Brynt in puldir ande asse. 1818Scott Br. Lamm. xi, ‘What would ye collect out of the sute and the ass?’ 1868Sill Hermitage v. 6 A charring ember, smouldering into ash.
c. simple sing. (Now chiefly in scientific lang.)
c1385Chaucer L.G.W. 2649 Ded wex hire hew & lyk an asch to sene. 1799W. Taylor in Robberds Mem. I. 287 Burn my last letter to an irrecollectable ash. 1864Swinburne Atalanta 2074 My heart is within me As an ash in the fire. 1868Dana Mineral. 747 Hircite..after complete combustion leaves an ash.
d. ash(es) of roses: a greyish-pink colour.
1872Young Englishwoman Nov. 599/1 Marmotte, a dark ashes-of-roses shade. 1893Daily News 17 May 3/4 The soft greyish pink known as ‘ashes of roses’. 1901Kipling Five Nations (1903) 113 Opal and ash-of-roses, Cinnamon, umber, and dun. 1927Daily Express 14 Mar. 5 Pomegranate, mulberry red, mushroom, and ashes of roses, a colour that looks like blue ash with a touch of flame, are among the fashion reds.
2. volcanic ash: the similar powdery matter ejected from volcanoes. black ash: a mixture of carbonate of soda and sulphide of calcium formed in the process of manufacturing soda from salt. (For other special products of similar nature, see bone-ash, copper-ash, pearlash, potash.)
(In this sense now collect. sing. ashes = kinds of ash.)
1667Badily Phil. Trans. Abr. I. 140 (title) A Shower of Ashes in the Archipelago. 1727–52Chambers Cycl. s.v. Potashes, Fern also makes excellent pot-ashes. 1807Pinkerton Mod. Geog. (1811) 627 With furious volcanic shocks..The ashes were borne to the distance of 150 miles. 1863Watts Dict. Chem. I. 420 Volcanic ash..appears to be composed of fragments of lava, slag, mica, felspar, magnetic iron ore, augite, pumice, olivine, etc. 1868Watts Dict. Chem. (1877) V. 326 Black Ash or Ball Soda. 1878A. Ramsay Phys. Geog. i. 22 By the study of modern volcanic ashes, it is.. not difficult to distinguish those of ancient date.
3. transf. or fig. Ruins, remains. to lay in ashes: to burn to the ground, destroy utterly.
1513Douglas æneis ii. viii. (vii.) 122 O ȝe cauld assis of Troy. 1647Cowley Mistr., Given Heart iv, Then shall Love keep the ashes..Of both our broken Hearts. 1711Addison Spect. No. 163 ⁋7 Whole Kingdoms laid in Ashes. 1877Bryant Ruins Italica, The envy of earth's cities once wert thou—A weary solitude and ashes now! 1879Froude Cæsar xii. 159 Where the ashes of the Sertorian rebellion were still smouldering.
4. a. From the ancient custom of burning the bodies of the dead: That which remains of a human body after cremation or (by transf.) total decomposition; hence poet. for ‘mortal remains, buried corpse.’
c1275Sinners Beware in O.E. Misc. 78 Þe wurmes hine ifyndeþ, To axe heo hyne gryndeþ. c1350Will. Palerne 4368 Sche shal be brent..& þe aschis of hire body, etc. 1387Trevisa Higden (Rolls Ser.) VII. 5 Þe holy axes of seint Wilfrede þe bisshop. 1460in Pol. Rel. & L. Poems (1866) 128 Ther be..þe askes of Iohne þe baptyste. 1528More Heresyes i. Wks. 110/1 And of y⊇ ashes of one heritique springeth up manye. 1683E. Hooker Pref. Pordage's Myst. Div. 31 Rake not up the Ashes of the Dead. 1751Gray Elegy xxiii, E'en in our ashes live their wonted fires. 1842Macaulay Horatius xxvii, Facing fearful odds For the ashes of his fathers And the temples of his Gods. 1852Tennyson Ode Wellington ix, The mortal disappears; Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.
b. the ashes: in Cricket, a term originating in a mock obituary notice published in the Sporting Times 2 Sept. 1882, after the sensational victory of Australia at the Oval on Aug. 29 of that year, announcing the cremation of the dead body of English Cricket and the taking of the ashes to Australia; hence, the losing or winning of the rubber in the series of test matches played periodically between the chosen representatives of English and Australian cricket is frequently described as the loss, or the recovery (if previously lost) or retaining (if previously held) of the ashes.
[1882Sporting Times 2 Sept., In Affectionate Remembrance of English Cricket Which died at the Oval on 29th August, 1882. Deeply lamented by a large circle of sorrowing friends and acquaintances. R.I.P. N.B.—The body will be cremated and the ashes taken to Australia.] 1903Warner in Westm. Gaz. 8 Dec. 2/1 If we fail to bring home ‘the ashes’ it will certainly not be for want of trying. 1921Glasgow Herald 21 Jan. 8 We must accept the transference of the ‘Ashes’ philosophically.
5. Dust of the ground. (Hence used to express man's mortal constitution.)
c950Lindisf. Gosp. Matt. x. 14 Sceaccas ða asca of fotum. c1230Ancr. R. 214 Euerich eorðlich eihte nis buten eorðe & asken. c1315Shoreham 107 Thench thou nart bote esche. 1340Ayenb. 137 Huet am ich bote esssse and spearken. 1382Wyclif Mal. iv. 3 Thei shuln be ashe vndir the soole of ȝoure feet. 1535Coverdale ibid., They shalbe like the asshes vnder the soles of your fete. [So in 1611.] 1548Compl. Scot. xvii. 152 Al men ar eird ande alse. 1588A. King Canisius' Catech. 130 Quhairfoir than art thow proude, thow earthe and assis? 1738Wesley Hymn ‘Eternal Power’ iii, Lord, what shall Earth and Ashes do? We would adore our Maker too.
6. a. (Used, in reference to the colour of wood ashes, to express excessive pallor of the countenance.) Hence the phrase pale as ashes, and ashes used poet. for ‘death-like paleness.’
c1374Chaucer Anel. & Arc. 173 Other coloure thanne Asshen hath she noone. 1678Butler Hud. iii. i. 1063 Turn'd pale as ashes or a clout. 1711Addison Spect. No. 12 ⁋3 Ghosts as pale as Ashes. 1814Byron Lara i. xxviii, The lip of ashes, and the cheek of flame. 1879Tennyson Lover's T. 91 And I..saw his face Fire, and dead ashes, and all fire again, Thrice in a second.
b. Ash-colour.
1876Field & Forest II. 41 Admitting that tephrocotis ‘has the least ash on the head’, how can this fact be attributed to climatological influences?
7. (From the employment of ashes among Eastern nations in token of mourning, used in many phrases symbolizing the expression of grief or repentance.)
c950Lindisf. Gosp. Matt. xi. 21 In asca..hreownisse dydon [Rushw. ascan]. c1000Ags. G. ibid., On axan. c1160Hatton G., On æscan. c1375Wyclif Serm. ccxviii. Sel. Wks. (1871) II. 187 Do penaunce in aishen and hayre. 1597Shakes. 2 Hen. IV, i. ii, Repents..not in ashes, and sackecloath, but in new Silke, and old sacke. 1611Bible Jonah iii. 6 Couered him with sackcloth, & sate in ashes. 1859Mill Liberty ii. 52 A deplorable error and misfortune, for which humanity should mourn in sackcloth and ashes.
8. Comb.
a. In a similative relation, as ash-brown, ash-grey, ash-looking, ash-white; passing into parasynthetic compounds, as ash-bellied, having a belly the colour of ashes; ash-colour (used attrib.), ash-coloured, of the colour of ashes, whitish- or brownish-grey. Also, in instrumental relation, ash-smeared.
1811Shaw Zool. VIII. 214 Ash-bellied Creeper.
1921Glasgow Herald 25 June 5/7 The spotted fly-catchers..are ash-brown above with a central dark line on the head feathers. 1959Times 8 Sept. 12/7 On the log wall was an ashbrown felt.
1580Sidney Arcadia (1622) 382 A faire smocke, wrought all in flames of ash-colour silke and gold. 1766Pennant Zool. II. 438 The forehead is a reddish ash-colour.
1611Cotgr., Cendré..ash-coloured. 1656Roxb. Bal. (1883) IV. 490 A Wench with an ash-coloured face. 1882M. Arnold Sel. Poems 125 The sweet blue eyes—the soft, ash-colour'd hair.
1889Yeats Wanderings of Oisin 125 An ash-grey feather. 1904W. de la Mare Henry Brocken 88 The cadent wail of the ash-grey birds. 1797T. Bewick Brit. Birds (1847) I. 65 Minute specklings of white, ash-grey, and brown.
1853Kane Grinnell Exp. xlvii. (1856) 438 Ash-looking silt from the ground-up gneisses.
1901Kipling Kim i. 4 Then there were holy men, ash-smeared faquirs by their brick shrines. 1927D. H. Lawrence Mornings in Mexico 160 Some of these ash-smeared men held armfuls of snakes.
1873R. Broughton Nancy III. 113 His face growing even more ash-white than it was before.
b. Special combinations (chiefly attrib.): ash-barrel (chiefly U.S.), a barrel for holding ashes; also occas. ashes barrel; ash-bed, a thick layer of ash; ash-bin, a receptacle for ashes and household refuse; ash-blond(e a., applied to hair of a light blond colour; as n., the colour itself; a person with hair of this colour; ash-blue, a chemical product of copper and lime-water; ash-box, a receptacle for ashes, (a) a pan beneath a fire-grate, (b) a dust-bin; ash-cake, one baked on or under hot ashes; ash-can (chiefly U.S.) = ash-bin; also fig.; in U.S. Services' slang, a depth charge; † ashes-cloth, a cloth to carry ashes in; † ashes-dodding, the strewing of the head with ashes on Ash-Wednesday; ash-drawer, (a) obs. name of the tourmaline, from its electric properties; (b) a drawer for ashes beneath a fire-grate; ash-fire, a low fire of ash and cinders used in chemical operations; ash-furnace, a furnace used in glass-making; ash-grate, a grate that fits over the ash-hole; ash-heap, a heap of ashes; also, a collection of ashes and household refuse; hence, ash-heap-cake (= ash-cake); ash-hoist, a hoist for removing ashes from the ash-pit of an engine house, the stokehold of a vessel, etc.; ash-hole, a hole beneath a fire-place or furnace into which the ashes fall; also, a hole in which ashes and household refuse are thrown away; ash-hopper U.S., a lye cask, resembling a hopper in a mill; ash-leach, a hopper or tub in which wood-ashes are placed that the alkaline salts may be dissolved from them; ash-like a., resembling ashes; ash-man, one who covers himself with, or lives in the, ashes; a collector and remover of ashes; ash-oven (= ash-furnace); ash-pan, a utensil (fitted beneath a grate) in which the ashes are collected and removed; † also = ash-hole; also, earlier term for ash-tray; ash-pit (= ash-hole); ash-receiver U.S., an ash-tray; ash-riddling, the northern custom of riddling ashes on the hearth on St. Mark's Eve as a method of divination; ash-shoot, a shaft through which the ashes are shot, or are raised from the stokehold to the deck of a ship; † ash-stone (= ash-drawer); ash-tray, a small bowl or other receptacle for tobacco-ash; ash-tub (= ash-bin). Also Ash-Wednesday, askebathe, askefise, q.v.
1846D. Corcoran Pickings from Portfolio 61 They were..knocking over the *ashes barrels, shying stones at the lamps. 1870‘F. Fern’ Ginger-Snaps 55 Garbage-heaps and ash-barrels before the door of poverty. 1905Kipling Actions & Reactions (1909) 6 That wilderness which is reached from an ash-barrel of a station called Charing Cross. 1947E. H. Paul Linden on Saugus Branch 136 The Protestant deacons..did not fail to note..the empty bottles in the ash barrels.
1849Murchison Siluria iv. 77 Felspathic agglomerates and *Ash-beds.
1883Pall Mall G. 29 Dec. 10 There were no *ashbins.
1903Daily Chron. 9 Mar. 3/1 My hair is a beautiful *ash-blonde. 1926Bulletin & Scots Pictorial 29 June 10/3 A mass of ash-blond hair was braided and coiled around her head. 1947E. Hyams Wm. Medium x. 197 They were ash-blondes, with heavenly skins and large blue eyes.
1833Loudon Encycl. Archit. §605 The bottoms of these chambers should have an *ash-box fitted into them. 1847Rep. Comm. Patents 1846 (U.S.) 261 The chamber of combustion and its grate and ash-box.
1899W. C. Morrow Bohemian Paris 103 The rows of heaped *ash-cans that lined the way. 1919World's Work Oct. 604/2 The depth charge looked like the innocent domestic ash can, and that was the name by which it soon became popularly known. 1920Chambers's Jrnl. Mar. 151/2 One of them upsets the ash can. 1944Auden For Time Being (1945) 71 In a wet vacancy among the ash cans. 1959G. Jenkins Twist of Sand iv. 68 ‘I give it five minutes before the ash-cans come.’.. Waiting for a depth-charge attack is probably as bad as the attack itself.
1461–83Ord. R. Househ. 85 They shalle have *aysshes clothes..to fetche aysshes in from every mannes chambres.
a1564Becon Humble Supplic. Wks. (1844) 231 Bread-worshipping, *ashes-dodding, fire and tapers-hallowing.
1802Edin. Rev. III. 307 *Ashdrawer as the English name for a tourmaline. 1833Loudon Encycl. Archit. §599 With the fire-places near the hearth, with front bars beveled inwards, and with an ash-drawer, the fender may be made very low. 1920Chambers's Jrnl. Apr. 264/2 An ash-drawer is arranged under the grate with the hot chamber below it.
1833Loudon Encycl. Archit. §605 The *ash-grate, being taken out, and its contents thrown in the dusthole, might be replaced, and the chamber again filled with coals. 1837Mag. Domestic Econ. III. 111 There should be an ash-grate and pit made under the fire-place, that the ashes may drop through the ash-grate into the pit, and leave the cinders over it.
c1650Herrick Wks. I. 176 (Halliw.) *Ash-heapes, in the which ye use Husbands and wives by streakes to chuse. 1839Stonehouse Axholme 47 Monday, ash-heap cake, with butter in a hole in the middle. c1870J. Murphy Comm. Lev. x. 19 The sin-sacrifice..was to be burnt on the ash-heap.
1920Blackw. Mag. Sept. 303/2 The noise of the *ash-hoist greeted his ear.
1641French Distill. iii. (1651) 84 The *Ash-hole..must be as wide as the Furnace. 1818S. E. Ferrier Marriage xxviii, I saw you..throw all the good dreaming-bread into the ash-hole. 1871Lowell Study Wind. in Casquet Lit. (1877) I. 394/1 The ash-hole of the glass-furnace.
1809Trans. Amer. Philos. Soc. VI. 240 ‘Cubic salts’..thrown upon the *ash-hoppers..are supposed to assist in precipitating the lime. 1885‘ C. E. Craddock’ Prophet Gt. Smoky Mts. i. 18 Some fifteen or twenty hounds that suddenly materialized from the ash-hopper.
1611Cotgr., Cendré, ashy, *ash-like.
1625Purchas Pilgrims ii. 1478 Dervises..sleeping at night in the warme ashes, with which they besmeare their bodies. These *Ashmen suffer not the Rasor to come upon their heads. 1873Aldrich Marj. Daw 142 He has fought the ashman's boy, the grocer's boy [etc.]. 1959E. Fenwick Long Way Down iii. 22 The ashman's visits: depressing, but routine.
1568Bible 1 Kings vii. 50 The *ashpannes [other vers. censers] of pure golde. 1727Bradley Fam. Dict. s.v. Chimney, The Ash-pan..must be dug in the Hearth, of a convenient Depth. 1857E. FitzGerald Let. 3 Oct. (1889) I. 265 The last Cheroot he had tried lay three quarters smoked in its little China ash-pan. 1883Army & Navy Co-op. Soc. Catal., Ash Pans in brass, steel, and Berlin Black. 1898G. B. Shaw Mrs. Warren's Profession iv. p. 216 A double writing-table..with a cigar box, ash pans.
1797Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3) s.v. Furnace, The ashes drop down into a cavity..called the *ash-pit. 1859Parkes Pract. Hygiene ix. (ed. 3) 313 Proximity of ashpits..causing contamination of the air.
1930D. Parker Laments for Living 62 The *ash-receivers, of Japanese manufacture, were in the form of grotesque heads..given..mouths stretched into great gapes, into which those who had the heart for it might flick their ashes.
1825Brockett North Country Words s.v. Ass, *Ass-riddlin, the riddling or sifting of the ashes on the hearth, on the eve of St. Mark. The superstitious notion is, that, should any of the family die within the year, the shoe will be impressed on the ashes. 1893K. Simpson Jeanie 240 Ash-riddling is an old custom which I like to keep up.
1889Cent. Dict., *Ash-shoot. 1898Kipling Fleet in Being 5, I heard Swinburne laying down the law to his juniors by the ash-shoot. 1920Blackw. Mag. Sept. 303/2 He..watched the fireman unhook his first bucket of ashes from the hoist and carry them to the ash-shoot.
1759Wilson in Phil. Trans. LI. 308 Experiments made upon the Tourmalin, or *Ashstone.
1887Kipling Plain Tales from Hills (1890) 116 He had tipped a bagful of his powder into the big silver *ash-tray. 1926M. Sutherland One o' the Herd v, A lacquered Chinese table with..a box of cigarettes and an ashtray upon it.
1620Quarles Feast Wormes 40 Though thou chuse an *Ash-tub for thy bed.
▪ III. † ash, n.3
Corruption of ache n.2, as in sweet ash: hare's parsley (Anthriscus sylvestris); and † ash of Jerusalem (obs.): prob. dyer's woad (Isatis tinctoria).
1548Turner Names of Herbs 40 Wyld wad is called in Englishe ashe of Hierusalem.
▪ IV. ash, n.4|æʃ|
Also 1, 9– æsc, 9 asc.
[OE. æsc: see ash n.1]
The name of the Old English runic letter ᚨ, corresponding to æ in the alphabetic writing of Old English, to which letter the name is also applied by modern scholars; named, like other runes, from the word of which it was the initial.
a1000Runic Poem (1915) 22 æsc biþ oferheah, eldum dyre. a1000in C. Williamson O.E. Riddles of Exeter Bk. (1977) 95 Se torhta æsc, an an linan. 1840Archaeologia XXVIII. 338 (Fig.), æsc. 1883I. Taylor Alphabet II. viii. 219 The rune asc..derived from epsilon, denoting a. 1915B. Dickins Runic & Heroic Poems 4 To the original 24 letters the English eventually added six, æsc, ac, yr, ear, calc, gar, if not a seventh ior. 1942E. V. K. Dobbie Anglo-Saxon Minor Poems 159 The rune for æsc, ‘ash’..[was] used for the sound æ after the early Anglo-Saxon sound change a > æ. 1955Quirk & Wrenn Old Eng. Gram. i. 8 æ is called ‘ash’, the OE word æsc ‘ash’ being the name of the corresponding runic letter. 1964T. Pyles Orig. & Devel. Eng. Lang. ii. 29 The æ was called æsc ‘ash’, the name of the runic symbol which represented the same sound, though it in no way resembled the Latin-English digraph. 1985R. W. Burchfield Eng. Lang. ii. 7 The runes..were..powerful, symbolically representing simple concepts, in that each character was also a word: thus ash..meant ‘ash-tree; a ship made from the ash’.
▪ V. ash, v.1 dial.|æʃ|
[f. ash n.1]
To flog with an ash-stick. Cf. to birch.
1877in Holderness Gloss. (E.D.S.) 57/1, s.v. Esh. 1940 F. Kitchen Brother to Ox i. 4 ‘Ashing a lad's behind’ was the recognized form of punishment.
▪ VI. ash, v.2|æʃ|
[f. ash n.2]
To sprinkle or strew with ashes.
c1645Howell Lett. iv. v, They ashe and powder their pericraniums. 1874Daily News 30 Dec. 3/6 The trotting track..was very slippery, and had to be ashed.
▪ VII. ash
obs. form of ask v. |