ashes

¹

/ ˈæʃɪz /

plural noun

1. ruins or remains, as after destruction or burning

   the city was left in ashes

2. the remains of a human body after cremation

Ashes

²

/ ˈæʃɪz /

plural noun

1. a cremated cricket stump in a pottery urn now preserved at Lord's. Victory or defeat in test matches between England and Australia is referred to as winning, losing, or retaining the Ashes

Word History and Origins

Origin of ashes¹

from the mock obituary of English cricket in The Times in 1882 after a great Australian victory at the Oval, in which it was said that the body would be cremated and the ashes taken to Australia

Example Sentences

The markets eventually recovered, as they always do, with even bigger booms rising out of the ashes of the last one.

Read more on Wall Street Journal

The site secures copper that would otherwise be wasted from households and scrapyards, or even the ashes from burned household waste.

Read more on Wall Street Journal

Then, teetering on a step stool, I slipped the box onto the top shelf of the hall closet, right behind the Christmas wrap and the three urns containing the ashes of my dead dogs.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Building permits are grinding slowly through the bureaucracy, hammers are swinging and a new Altadena will one day rise from the ashes.

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In some cases, families discovered they had been given the wrong ashes.

Read more on BBC