From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishashash /æʃ/ ●○○ noun 1 DBURN[countable, uncountable] the soft grey powder that remains after something has been burned cigarette ash The house burnt to ashes.2 → ashes3 HBP[countable, uncountable] a tree that is common in Britain and North America, or the wood from this tree
Examples from the Corpus
ash• cigar ash• In 1871 it burned down, 17,000 buildings were consumed, and a third of the city lay in ashes.• Tiny wisps of ash floated up.• The explosion spewed ash and golf ball-sized fireballs into the air.• Even when remains are cremated, the ashes are often placed in an urn and buried.• In the ashes were bits of broken eggshell.• Investigators sifted through the ashes to find the cause of the fire.• The original versions were reduced to ashes when an earlier Capitol burned in 1881.ASHASH /æʃ/ (Action on Smoking and Health) a British organization that opposes smoking and the tobacco industry. It tries to influence the government to put high taxes on tobacco and to make laws that restrict smoking, cigarette advertising etc.Origin ash 1. Old English asce2. Old English æsc