1The powdery residue left after the burning of a substance.

1. 1.1ashesThe remains of something destroyed; ruins.
   More example sentences

   • ‘the people are really living in the ashes of those traditions and institutions’
2. 1.2ashesThe remains of the human body after cremation or burning.
   ‘his ashes were scattered on a Welsh mountainside’
   More example sentences

   • ‘Two months after the Staff of Energy was destroyed, Will's body was burned into ashes and thrown into the Atlantic Ocean.’
   • ‘A funeral director later identified the substance as human ashes.’
   • ‘He is part of the team investigating what is happening to the growing volume of human ashes now removed from crematoria.’
   • ‘After an autopsy, he plans to have his wife's body cremated and her ashes brought to Pennsylvania, where she grew up.’
   • ‘Normally, the entire body gets burnt to ashes in one-and-a-half hours.’
   • ‘Only ashes remained, no bodies for him to burn properly to give peace to his parents' souls.’
   • ‘It would only be a matter of seconds before the man's body was completely burned, but it would take a while before his entire body would burn to ashes.’
   • ‘When my mother died, we took her ashes out into the ocean to the same spot where we had scattered my fathers ashes a few years earlier.’
   • ‘For eight years Mandy Sutcliffe visited a remembrance garden to pay her respects to her mother, father and sister whose ashes she believed had been scattered on a special family plot.’
   • ‘A private ash interment will be held at a later date.’
   • ‘Many parents choose cremation because they can take their baby's ashes home or distribute them at a location that has some meaning to them.’
   • ‘Buddha's ashes were distributed all over the country and Stupas were built for them.’
   • ‘When he was dying, he told his family to spread half of his ashes on the mystic mountains and the lake in China he had called home for so many years.’
   • ‘Adrienne was cremated and her ashes were scattered about the mountain, taken by the wind.’
   • ‘In fact, if someone is cremated, having died in the mountains or elsewhere, it is far more fitting to scatter the ashes from a mountain top or at a spot beloved of the deceased.’
   • ‘Days later we took Doug's ashes into the mountains, spreading them in view of both Shuksan and Baker.’
   • ‘Plots can contain the memorial stones and ashes of several generations, each ancestor bearing a new name bestowed by priests for the afterlife.’
   • ‘Interment of ashes took place in Ballinrobe cemetery.’
   • ‘Cremation to follow and a private family interment of ashes to take place at a later date.’
3. 1.3Powdery material thrown out by a volcano.
   ‘the plains have been showered by volcanic ash’
   More example sentences

   • ‘No absolute age was calculated for the site because it contains no volcanic ash, the material usually analyzed in such dating.’
   • ‘What happened, class, is when the volcano exploded, it threw red-hot ash into the air for miles and miles around.’
   • ‘The volcanic ash produced by the volcano has made the soil in surrounding areas fertile enough for almost any plant to grow.’
   • ‘Some counties are already distributing information to residents on how to protect themselves from ash from the volcano.’
   • ‘Water sources could not be consumed as they were contaminated by sulfur and ash from the volcano, he added.’
   • ‘Scientists say that any eruption could throw up a modest ash plume and also be accompanied by mud flows that would ooze out of the crater's open north end.’
   • ‘Interspersed among the river sediments are occasional layers of volcanic ash from ancient eruptions of nearby volcanoes.’
   • ‘A huge plume of ash rose from a volcano in eastern Congo yesterday, raising fears it could once again spew lava over a Congolese town it devastated six months ago.’
   • ‘The main point is this: Volcanic ash is a formidable menace and aircrews must take deliberate avoidance measures to escape its effects.’
   • ‘He said officials expected a large ash plume if the volcano blows.’
   • ‘In a Minoan house they found these whole vases, cracked from the volcanic pumice and ash.’
   • ‘This fine clay, derived from volcanic ash, binds stools.’
   • ‘The researchers sampled the volcanic ash on both sides of the river that lay above where the fossils were found.’
   • ‘Footprints of two friends, probably children, left in volcanic ash more than 325,000 years ago are the oldest ever found.’
   • ‘Despite the dangers, people often settle near volcanoes because the soil is periodically fertilized with mineral rich ash and dust.’
   • ‘In northern Tanzania, a volcano built largely of alkali silicates is currently erupting sodium, calcium, and potassium carbonates as lava and ash.’
   • ‘It can be discounted here because of the absence of clay minerals and organic matter in freshly erupted ash.’
   • ‘The gas results from a chemical reaction between hydrogen fluoride vapor and the silicate minerals in volcanic ash.’
   • ‘The minerals in volcanic ash reflect this wavelength particularly well.’
   • ‘Volcanoes don't just emit lava; they also spew out hot gas containing lots of little ash and dust particles into the atmosphere.’
   • ‘He likes to mix volcanic ash with his homemade pigments to make paint.’
4. 1.4The mineral component of an organic substance, as assessed from the residue left after burning.
   ‘coal contains higher levels of ash than premium fuels’
   More example sentences

   • ‘Soap was first made by boiling goat fat, water, and ash high in potassium carbonate.’
   • ‘Wheat plants grown in limed and nonlimed soil fertilized with poultry ash or potassium phosphate produced similar yields.’
   • ‘The ash contains calcium and phosphorous essential to healthy milk.’
   • ‘They include such materials as soil, sand, rice flour, ash, white cement, charcoal or pigment, rubbed onto paper or canvas.’
   • ‘Fire can also aid bog formation as particles of ash and carbon deposited into the soil profile can reduce drainage and therefore initiate peat growth.’
   • ‘The ash residue from the burning of hazardous waste is itself highly toxic.’
   • ‘It mixes manure with recycled materials like cement or lime kiln dust, coal ash from electric power plants, and gypsum.’
   • ‘Minerals from the ash and the silicon-rich water replaced the trees' organic material and, over the eons, assumed their form as quartz.’
   • ‘Faience is a glass-like material, made by heating a paste consisting of sand or crushed quartz, an alkali such as plant ash, and a glaze, until vitrification occurs.’
   • ‘He visited a £32m project to stabilise mines under the town by pumping them full of a mixture of fuel ash and cement.’
   • ‘As the brine is pumped out, the mines will be filled with a million tonnes of grout - made from the pulverised fuel ash, salt and cement.’
   • ‘Banana sap can be used as a dye, and banana ash is used in making soap.’
   • ‘It combusts perfectly, leaving no residue, no ash.’
   • ‘As in Edgefield, potters at Guadalupe initially used alkaline, or ash, glazes.’
   • ‘All the waste is used completely as the small amount of ash residue; which is inert, can be used in by-products.’
   • ‘Grain and hay samples were analyzed for DM, ash, and soluble protein.’
   • ‘Fly ash is a waste ash produced from burning coal in electric power plants.’
   • ‘In addition, low quality coals can have a very high ash content which results in problems of residual ash disposal and associated heavy metal leaching.’
   • ‘The ash of the fruit and the bark, when boiled in oil, are used in making soaps.’
   • ‘The burning cellulose drips and leaves a hard ash.’

1

Genus Fraxinus, family Oleaceae: many species, including the North American white ash (F. americana) and the European ash (F. excelsior)

1. 1.1The hard pale wood of the ash tree.
   ‘All products are made of three types of wood: ash from the US, beech from Germany and sapele from Africa.’
   More example sentences

   • ‘Look for wooden handles made out of ash or hickory wood.’
   • ‘Using thorn, apple and pear woods for heads and ash for the shafts, Philip mastered his craft, revolutionising play with shapes that, literally, broke the mould.’
   • ‘The shaft of long handled tools should be a light wood, such as ash, and should be unpainted and free of knots.’
   • ‘The best wooden cutting boards are made from hard woods like oak, ash, and maple.’
   • ‘Timberyards in the British Isles would have contained indigenous woods like oak, ash, elm, sycamore and beech.’
   • ‘Alternatively, for a clean, elegant look, go for hand-made hardwood kitchens in pale maple or ash.’
   • ‘We heard the rhythmic pounding as the spear points were hammered onto shafts of ash wood.’
   • ‘The neatly folded scented bed sheets and the four-poster bed made of ash wood had this annoying elegance, which seems to be mocking at her frustration.’
   • ‘Previous competitions also used poles made out of ash wood which was not flexible, and athletes would sort of climb up the pole as they jumped.’
   • ‘It was almost a foot long, made of ash wood with beautiful engravings of seagulls and sailor knots and braided ropes on it.’
   • ‘Then there are her unusual wall sculptures made from ash wood, which she says bring a ‘natural presence’ to the home.’
   • ‘My favourite woods are yew and ash, but I enjoy working with any wood.’
   • ‘The traditional handle material is northern hardwood - usually ash, sometimes hickory.’
   • ‘The internal finishes are impressive, with features such as larch, ash, deal and slate floors and hardwood doubleglazed windows.’
   • ‘The kitchen's mahogany, ash, and aluminum are carried into the living room, where they're composed as a painterly fireplace wall.’
   • ‘A pine plotting board and two pairs of dividers in their ash wood case were found nearby.’
   • ‘He uses ash to craft garden chairs, because of the wood's flexibility.’
   • ‘In keeping with the luxuriously modern interior, floors are finished in ash wood throughout, enhancing the feeling of space and light.’
   • ‘Usually they were made of pine, though occasionally they were made of ash or poplar.’
2. 1.2Any of a number of unrelated trees with leaves similar to the ash.
   See also mountain ash
   More example sentences

   • ‘Brilliant bigtooth maple, velvet ash, and box elder leaves float on mirror-smooth pools and stick to hiking boots.’

2An Old English runic letter, ᚫ, a vowel intermediate between a and e. It is represented in the Roman alphabet by the symbol æ or Æ.