commonly in pl. Ashes. 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. plural.
α. c. 1000. Ags. Ps. ci. 10. Ic anlic ætt æscean hlafe.
c. 1000. Sax. Leechd., I. 334. Heortes hornes axan.
a. 1230. Ancr. R., 214. Þe ȝiscare … lið euer iðen asken.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Sqrs. T., 247. It was Wonder to maken of fern Asshen [v.r. aschyn, aisshen, aschen] glas.
1483. Caxton, Gold. Leg., 224/2. A loof baken under asshen.
1578. Lyte, Dodoens, 271. [Dill] made into axsen.
1597. Gerard, Herbal, II. cxlvii. (1633), 429. The axen or ashes.
1863. W. Barnes, Poem in Dorset Dial., in Sat. Rev., 124. The fleäme’s red peaks, till axan white Did quench em.
β. c. 1200. Ormin, 1001. Tatt lac wass brennd And turrnedd all till asskess.
c. 1325. E. E. Allit. P., B. 626. Vnder askeȝ ful hote.
1366. Maundev., xxviii. 289. Undir the assches there offe.
1413. Lydg., Pylgr. Sowle, II. lviii. 56. Hit brenneth in to asshes.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, II. xi. (x.) 52. Fillit with assis reid.
1562. J. Heywood, Prov. & Epigr. (1867), 22. I proud, and thou proud, who shall beare thashes out.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Georg., I. 118. Sprinkle sordid Ashes all around.
1716–8. Lady Montague, Lett., II. xliii. 14. The hot ashes commonly set the house on fire.
1806. Coleridge, Christabel. The brands were dying, Amid their own white ashes lying.
b. collective sing.
1250. Lay., 25989. Al bi-walewed in axe.
1297. R. Glouc., 536. Hii sende Al the brut aske withoute.
a. 1300. E. E. Psalter ci. 10. Aske as bred I et.
a. 1300. Havelok, 2840. Sket was [he] on þe asse leyd … And brend til asken.
1382. Wyclif, Amos ii. 1. He brente the bonys of the Kyng of Ydume vn to ash.
c. 1450. Henryson, Mor. Fables, 5. Scraping among the Ashe.
1535. Stewart, Cron. Scot. (1858), I. 7. Also thair principall toun, Brynt it in as.
1548. Compl. Scot., 21. Brynt in puldir ande asse.
1818. Scott, Br. Lamm., xi. ‘What would ye collect out of the sute and the ass?’
1868. Sill, Hermitage, v. 6. A charring ember, smouldering into ash.
c. simple sing. (Now chiefly in scientific lang.)
c. 1385. Chaucer, L. G. W., 2649. Ded wex hire hew & lyk an asch to sene.
1799. W. Taylor, in Robberds, Mem., I. 287. Burn my last letter to an irrecollectable ash.
1864. Swinburne, Atalanta, 2074. My heart is within me As an ash in the fire.
1868. Dana, Mineral., 747. Hircite … after complete combustion leaves an ash.
2. Volcanic ash: the similar powdery matter ejected from volcanos. 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.)
1667. Badily, Phil. Trans. Abr., I. 140 (title), A Shower of Ashes in the Archipelago.
1727–52. Chambers, Cycl., s.v. Pot-ashes, Fern also makes excellent pot-ashes.
1807. Pinkerton, Mod. Geog. (1811), 627. With furious volcanic shocks … The ashes were borne to the distance of 150 miles.
1863. Watts, Dict. Chem., I. 420. Volcanic ash, when examined by the microscope, appears to be composed of fragments of lava, slag, mica, felspar, magnetic iron ore, augite, pumice, olivine, &c.
1868. Watts, Dict. Chem. (1877), V. 326. Black Ash or Ball Soda.
1878. A. 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.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, II. viii. (vii.) 122. O ȝe cauld assis of Troy.
1647. Cowley, Mistr., Given Heart, iv. Then shall Love keep the ashes … Of both our broken Hearts.
1711. Addison, Spect., No. 163, ¶ 7. Whole Kingdoms laid in Ashes.
1877. Bryant, Ruins Italica. The envy of earth’s cities once wert thou—A weary solitude and ashes now!
1879. Froude, Cæsar, xii. 159. Where the ashes of the Sertorian rebellion were still smouldering.
4. 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.’
c. 1275. Sinners Beware, in O. E. Misc., 78. Þe wurmes hine ifyndeþ, To axe heo hyng gryndeþ.
c. 1350. Will. Palerne, 4368. Sche shal be brent … & þe aschis of hire body [etc.].
1387. Trevisa, Higden (Rolls Ser.), VII. 5. Þe holy axes of seint Wilfrede þe bisshop.
1460. in Pol. Rel. & L. Poems (1866), 128. Ther be … þe askes of Iohne þe baptyste.
1528. More, Heresyes, I. Wks. 110/1. And of ye ashes of one heritique springeth up manye.
1683. E. Hooker, Pref. Pordage’s Myst. Div., 31. Rake not up the Ashes of the Dead.
1751. Gray, Elegy, xxiii. E’en in our ashes live their wonted fires.
1842. Macaulay, Horatius, xxvii. Facing fearful odds For the ashes of his fathers And the temples of his Gods.
1852. Tennyson, Wellington, ix. The mortal disappears; Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.
5. Dust of the ground. (Hence used to express man’s mortal constitution.)
c. 950. Lindisf. Gosp., Matt. x. 14. Sceaccas ða asca of fotum.
a. 1230. Ancr. R., 214. Euerich eorðlich eihte nis buten eorðe & asken.
c. 1315. Shoreham, 107. Thench thou nart bote esche.
1340. Ayenb., 137. Huet am ich bote esssse and spearken.
1382. Wyclif, Mal. iv. 3. Thei shuln be ashe vndir the soole of ȝoure feet.
1535. Coverdale, ibid. They shalbe like the asshes vnder the soles of your fete. [So in 1611.]
1548. Compl. Scot., xvii. 152. Al men ar eird ande alse.
1588. A. King, trans. Canisius’ Catech., 130. Quhairfoir than art thow proude, thow earthe and assis?
1738. Wesley, Hymn ‘Eternal Power,’ iii. Lord, what shall Earth and Ashes do? We would adore our Maker too.
6. (Used, in reference to the color of wood ashes, to express excessive pallor of the countenance.) Hence the phrase Pale as ashes, and Ashes used poet. for ‘death-like paleness.’
c. 1374. Chaucer, Anel. & Arc., 173. Other coloure thanne Asshen hath she noone.
1678. Butler, Hud., III. i. 1063. Turn’d pale as ashes or a clout.
1711. Addison, Spect., No. 12, ¶ 3. Ghosts as pale as Ashes.
1814. Byron, Lara, I. xxviii. The lip of ashes, and the cheek of flame.
1879. Tennyson, Lover’s T., 91. And I … saw his face Fire, and dead ashes, and all fire again, Thrice in a second.
7. (From the employment of ashes among Eastern nations in token of mourning, used in many phrases symbolizing the expression of grief or repentance.)
c. 950. Lindisf. Gosp., Matt. xi. 21. In asca … hreownisse dydon [Rushw. ascan].
c. 1000. Ags. G., ibid. On axan.
c. 1160. Hatton G. On æscan.
c. 1375. Wyclif, Serm., ccxviii. Sel. Wks. (1871), II. 187. Do penaunce in aishen and hayre.
1597. Shaks., 2 Hen. IV., I. ii. Repents … not in ashes, and sackecloath, but in new Silke, and old sacke.
1611. Bible, Jonah iii. 6. Couered him with sackcloth, & sate in ashes.
1859. Mill, 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-grey, -looking, -white; passing into parasynthetic compounds, as ash-bellied, having a belly the color of ashes; ash-colo(u)r (used attrib.), ash-colo(u)red, of the color of ashes, whitish- or brownish-grey.
1797. Bewick, Brit. Birds (1847), I. 65. Minute specklings of white, ash-grey, and brown.
1853. Kane, Grinnell Exp., xlvii. (1856), 438. Ash-looking silt from the ground-up gneisses.
1873. Miss Broughton, Nancy, III. 113. His face growing even more ash-white than it was before.
1811. Shaw, Zool., VIII. 214. Ash-bellied Creeper.
1580. Sidney, Arcadia (1622), 382. A faire smocke, wrought all in flames of ash-colour silke and gold.
1766. Pennant, Zool., II. 438. The forehead is a reddish ash-colour.
1611. Cotgr., Cendré … ash-coloured.
1656. Roxb. Bal. (1883), IV. 490. A Wench with an ash-coloured face.
1882. M. Arnold, Sel. Poems, 125. The sweet blue eyes—the soft, ash-colour’d hair.
b. Special combinations (chiefly attrib.): ash-bed, a thick layer of ash; ash-bin, a receptacle for ashes and household refuse; ash-blue, a chemical product of copper and lime-water; ash-cake, one baked on or under hot ashes; † ashes-cloth, a cloth to carry ashes in; † ashes-dodding, the strewing of the head with ashes on Ash-Wednesday; † ash-drawer, obs. name of the tourmaline, from its electric properties; ash-fire, a low fire of ash and cinders used in chemical operations; ash-furnace, a furnace used in glass-making; ash-heap, a heap of ashes; also, a collection of ashes and household refuse; hence, ash-heap-cake (= ash-cake); 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-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; ash-oven (= ash-furnace); ash-pan, a utensil (fitted beneath a grate) in which the ashes are collected and removed; † also = ash-hole; ash-pit (= ash-hole); † ash-stone (= ash-drawer); ash-tub (= ash-bin). Also ASH-WEDNESDAY, ASKEBATHE, ASKEFISE, q.v.
1849. Murchison, Siluria, iv. 77. Felspathic agglomerates and *Ash-beds.
1883. Pall Mall Gaz., 29 Dec., 10. There were no *ashbins.
1461–83. Ord. R. Househ., 85. They shall have *aysshes clothes … to fetche aysshes in from every mannes chambres.
a. 1564. Becon, Humble Supplic., Wks. (1844), 231. Bread worshipping, *ashes-dodding, fire and tapers-hallowing.
1802. Edin. Rev., III. 307. *Ashdrawer as the English name for a tourmaline.
c. 1650. Herrick, Wks., I. 176 (Halliw.). *Ash-heapes, in the which ye use Husbands and wives by streakes to chuse.
c. 1870. J. Murphy, Comm. Lev. x. 19. The sin-sacrifice … was to be burnt on the ash-heap.
1898. Peoples Herald, 29 Sept., 1/3. Has representative government become a thing so poor and mean as to be cast out on the fulliginous ash-heap of history…?
1839. Stonehouse, Axholme, 47. Monday, *ash-heap cake, with butter in a hole in the middle.
1641. French, Distill., iii. (1651), 84. The *Ash-hole … must be as wide as the Furnace.
1818. Miss Ferriar, Marriage, xxviii. I saw you … throw all the good dreaming-bread into the ash-hole.
1871. Lowell, Study Wind., in Casquet Lit. (1877), I. 394/1. The ash-hole of the glass-furnace.
1611. Cotgr., Cendré, ashy, *ash-like.
1625. Purchas, 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.
1568. Bible, 1 Kings vii. 50. The *ashpannes [other vers. censers] of pure golde.
1727. Bradley, Fam. Dict., s.v. Chimney, The Ash-pan … must be dug in the Hearth, of a convenient Depth.
1883. Army & Navy Co-op. Soc. Catal. Ash Pans in brass, steel, and Berlin Black.
1797. Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3), s.v. Furnace, The ashes drop down into a cavity … called the *ash-pit.
1859. Parkes, Pract. Hygiene, ix. (ed. 3), 313. Proximity of ashpits … causing contamination of the air.
1759. Wilson, in Phil. Trans., LI. 308. Experiments made upon the Tournalin, or *Ashstone.
1620. Quarles, Feast Wormes, 40. Though thou chuse an *Ash-tub for thy bed.
