Library / English Dictionary

ASH

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

Irregular inflected form: ashes   

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Any of various deciduous pinnate-leaved ornamental or timber trees of the genus Fraxinus

Synonyms:

ash; ash tree

Classified under:

Nouns denoting plants

Hypernyms ("ash" is a kind of...):

tree (a tall perennial woody plant having a main trunk and branches forming a distinct elevated crown; includes both gymnosperms and angiosperms)

Meronyms (parts of "ash"):

ash-key (winged seed of the ash tree)

Meronyms (substance of "ash"):

ash (strong elastic wood of any of various ash trees; used for furniture and tool handles and sporting goods such as baseball bats)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "ash"):

Arizona ash; Fraxinus velutina (small shrubby ash of southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico)

Fraxinus tomentosa; pumpkin ash (timber tree of central and southeastern United States having hairy branchlets and a swollen trunk base)

Fraxinus Americana; white ash (spreading American ash with leaves pale green or silvery beneath and having hard brownish wood)

Fraxinus caroliniana; swamp ash (small ash of swampy areas of southeastern United States)

flowering ash; Fraxinus cuspidata (shrubby ash of southwestern United States having fragrant white flowers)

flowering ash; Fraxinus dipetala (shrubby California ash with showy off-white flowers)

common European ash; European ash; Fraxinus excelsior (tall ash of Europe to the Caucasus having leaves shiny dark-green above and pale downy beneath)

Fraxinus latifolia; Fraxinus oregona; Oregon ash (timber tree of western North America yielding hard light wood; closely related to the red ash)

basket ash; black ash; brown ash; Fraxinus nigra; hoop ash (vigorous spreading North American tree having dark brown heavy wood; leaves turn gold in autumn)

flowering ash; Fraxinus ornus; manna ash (southern Mediterranean ash having fragrant white flowers in dense panicles and yielding manna)

downy ash; Fraxinus pennsylvanica; red ash (smallish American tree with velvety branchlets and lower leaf surfaces)

blue ash; Fraxinus quadrangulata (ash of central and southern United States with bluish-green foliage and hard brown wood)

Fraxinus texensis; mountain ash (low-growing ash of Texas)

Instance hyponyms:

Ygdrasil; Yggdrasil ((Norse mythology) a huge ash tree whose roots and branches hold the earth and Heaven and Hell together)

Holonyms ("ash" is a member of...):

Fraxinus; genus Fraxinus (ash)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Strong elastic wood of any of various ash trees; used for furniture and tool handles and sporting goods such as baseball bats

Classified under:

Nouns denoting plants

Hypernyms ("ash" is a kind of...):

wood (the hard fibrous lignified substance under the bark of trees)

Holonyms ("ash" is a substance of...):

ash; ash tree (any of various deciduous pinnate-leaved ornamental or timber trees of the genus Fraxinus)

Sense 3

Meaning:

The residue that remains when something is burned

Classified under:

Nouns denoting substances

Hypernyms ("ash" is a kind of...):

residue (matter that remains after something has been removed)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "ash"):

fly ash (fine solid particles of ash that are carried into the air when fuel is combusted)

bone ash (ash left when bones burn; high in calcium phosphate; used as fertilizer and in bone china)

Derivation:

ash (convert into ashes)

ashy (of a light grey)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Convert into ashes

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Hypernyms (to "ash" is one way to...):

alter; change; modify (cause to change; make different; cause a transformation)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Derivation:

ash (the residue that remains when something is burned)

Credits

 Context examples: 

The Crater Lake region is blanketed with ash deposits from such volcanoes.

(New answer to MRSA, other 'superbug' infections: clay minerals?, NSF)

Despite a recent decline in earthquakes, Ubinas Volcano erupted an ash plume on April 28, 2014.

(Fresh lava arrives at Ubinas volcano, NASA)

“They clung to the inside and stuck together. When we did the same experiment with sand and volcanic ash using Earth-like conditions, all of it came out. Nothing stuck.”

('Electric Sands' Cover Titan, VOA News)

The ash plumes rose as high as 30,000 feet (9 kilometers) into the sky, diverting flights.

(NASA Shows New Tongan Island Made of Tuff Stuff, Likely to Persist Years, NASA)

Then I went back to Nulato, and, behold, there was no Nulato—only ashes where the great fort had stood, and the bodies of many men.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

After premising thus much, it would be a work of supererogation to add, that dust and ashes are for ever scattered

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

There, sure enough, I perceived a number of flaky ashes, and round the edges a fringe of brownish powder, which had not yet been consumed.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I, for instance, am but dust and ashes.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

I love an ash arrow pierced with cornel-wood for a roving shaft.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

You will kindly deposit your ash in the small Japanese tray on the bamboo table which stands at your left elbow.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)