pl. -ashes. [WOOD sb.1, ASH sb.2] The ash or ashes of burnt wood.
1748. Anson’s Voy., II. ii. 135. This oil served…, when mixed with wood-ashes, to supply the use of tallow.
1836. C. Wordsworth, Athens, v. (1855), 26. Kneading some cakes to be placed among the wood-ashes of the fire, and baked.
1884. Littell’s Living Age, 659. They found swarms of natives who had rubbed themselves with wood-ash until their complexions were ‘the color of slate-pencil.’
¶ See WOAD-ASHES.
