ash
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: enpr: ăsh
ipa: /æʃ/
rhymes: -æʃ
Forms: form: ashes
form: ashing
form: ashed
form: ashed
Etymology: From Middle English asshe, from Old English æsċe, from Proto-West Germanic *askā, from Proto-Germanic *askǭ (compare West Frisian jiske, Dutch as, Low German Asch, German Asche, Danish aske, Swedish aska, Norwegian aske), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂eHs-; see it for cognates.
The rare plural axen is from Middle English axen, axnen, from Old English axan, asċan (“ashes”) (plural of Old English axe, æsċe (“ash”)).
Senses: examples: text: I dried the extracted leather very slowly on the steam bath […] until the substance was dry enough to ash. […] I think that the discrepancy in the percentages of "total ash" by method No. 2 and No. 6 is due to this excessive heat required to ash the leather […]
ref: 1919, Harry Gordon, Total Soluble and Insoluble Ash in Leather, published in the Journal of the American Leather Chemists Association, W. K. Alsop and W. A. Fox, eds, volume XIV, number 1, on page 253
text: The inorganic material left after ashing lung tissue specimens not only contains inhaled particles but also very large quantities of inorganic residue derived from the tissue itself.
ref: 1981, Hans Weill, Margaret Turner-Warwick, and Claude Lenfant, eds, Occupational Lung Diseases: Research Approaches and Methods, Lung Biology in Health and disease, volume 18, page 203
text: Ash and silica contents of the plant material were determined by classical gravimetric techniques. Tissue samples were ashed in platinum crucibles at about 500 °C, and the ash was treated repeatedly with 6 N hydrochloric acid to remove other mineral impurities.
ref: 1989?, Annals of Botany, volume 64, issues 4-6, page 397
text: A 10-g food sample was dried, then ashed, and analyzed for salt (NaCl) content by the Mohr titration method (AgNO₃ + Cl → AgCl). The weight of the dried sample was 2g, and the ashed sample weight was 0.5g.
ref: 2010, S. Suzanne Nielsen, ed, Food Analysis, fourth edition, Chapter 12, "Traditional Methods for Mineral Analysis", page 213
topics: chemistry
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
glosses: To reduce to a residue of ash. See ashing.
examples: text: "Nonsense," Mrs. Gardiner challenged, ashing her cigarette.
ref: 1936, F.J. Thwaites, The Redemption, Sydney: H. John Edwards Publishing, published 1940, page 62:
text: He realized that he was standing staring at her and he sat down quickly, making a business of ashing his cigarette.
ref: 1961, Kenneth Cook, Wake in Fright, published 1988, page ii. 52:
text: Hamilton ashed his cigar, and studied the end of it for some moments without speaking.
ref: 1978, C.J. Koch, The Year of Living Dangerously, published 1986, page 35:
text: ‘He’s right, you know,’ said Archie earnestly, ashing a fag in an empty curry bowl.
ref: 2000, Zadie Smith, White Teeth, London: Penguin Books, published 2001, →ISBN, page 242:
glosses: To hit the end off (a burning cigar or cigarette).
topics: Christianity
qualifier: chiefly passive voice
glosses: To mark (someone) with an ashen cross on the forehead to observe Ash Wednesday.
examples: text: Last spring, after I planted, I took what ashes I have saved during the last year, and put on my corn […] . On harvesting I cut up the two rows which were not ashed (or twenty rods of them,) and set them apart from the others in stouts; and then I cut up two rows of the same length, on each side, which had been ashed, […]
ref: 1847, H., Ashes on Corn.---An Experiment, published in the Genesee Farmer, volume 8, page 281
text: After the corn was planted, upon acre A, I spread broadcast one hundred bushels of lime, (cost $3) and fifty bushels of ashes, (cost $6.) […] The extra crop of the combination over the limed acre or ashed, was paid by the increased crop, […]
ref: 1849, in a letter to James Higgins, published in 1850 in The American Farmer, volume V, number 7, pages 227-8
qualifier: chiefly passive voice
glosses: To cover newly-sown fields of crops with ashes.