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• ashes
  ashes

  plural noun

  ruins or remains, as after destruction or burning
• Ashes
  Ashes

  plural noun

  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

ashes

¹ British  

/ 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

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Ashes ² British  

/ 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

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Etymology

Origin of Ashes

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

Glatt, who wears a bracelet containing some of Dena’s ashes “so she’ll always be with me,” unsurprisingly was emotional after the Santa Anita Derby last month.

From Los Angeles Times • May 2, 2026

He’s come this far to sprinkle his folks’ cremated ashes at the only place he can picture them happy.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 30, 2026

A group of grandmothers formed an unlikely friendship with a pro wrestler during an emotional trip to Las Vegas to scatter a late husband's ashes.

From BBC • Apr. 30, 2026

Then too, she has her mother’s ashes in storage, next to a vintage Pee-wee Herman doll in its original packaging.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 15, 2026

Then she burned some clean, bright hardwood, and saved its ashes.

From "Little House in the Big Woods" by Laura Ingalls Wilder