cinder

American  

[sin-der] / ˈsɪn dər /

noun

1. a partially or mostly burned piece of coal, wood, etc.

2. cinders,

   1. any residue of combustion; ashes.

   2. Geology. coarse scoriae erupted by volcanoes.

3. a live, flameless coal; ember.

4. Metallurgy.

   1. slag.

   2. a mixture of ashes and slag.

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verb (used with object)

1. to spread cinders on.

   The highway department salted and cindered the icy roads.

2. Archaic. to reduce to cinders.

verb (used without object)

1. to spread cinders on a surface, as a road or sidewalk.

   My neighbor began cindering as soon as the first snowflake fell.

cinder British  

/ ˈsɪndə /

noun

1. a piece of incombustible material left after the combustion of coal, coke, etc; clinker

2. a piece of charred material that burns without flames; ember

3. Also called: sinter.  any solid waste from smelting or refining

4. (plural) fragments of volcanic lava; scoriae

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verb

1. rare (tr) to burn to cinders

cinder Idioms  

1. see burned to a cinder.

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Other Word Forms

• cinderlike adjective
• cinderous adjective
• cindery adjective

Etymology

Origin of cinder

before 900; Middle English synder, Old English sinder slag; cognate with German Sinter, Old Norse sindr; c- (for s- ) < French cendre ashes

Example Sentences

“Vanish? Mayhem?” he muttered, packing the rotten fruit from the dump around his cinder mushrooms.

From Literature

The daughter of a traveling salesman, Flores grew up modestly in the cinder block hills of Catia, a hardscrabble district of western Caracas.

From The Wall Street Journal

In Los Angeles, alas, we were, last spring, a city of cinders.

From Los Angeles Times

Women began spreading their blankets on the hard cinder ground.

From Literature

“Gawk at a bunch of implements in the Montezuma railroad yard with all those cinders underfoot?”

From Literature

Related Words

• ember
• soot