Ash-hole

Alternative forms

Origin

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OED Online|entry=ash-hole|pos=n|id=1130325054

Full definition of ash-hole

Noun

1. A hole beneath a fireplace or a receptacle in a furnace to receive falling ash.
• 1764, Pierre Joseph MacQuer, Elements of the Theory and Practice of Chymistry, The lower part of the furnace designed for receiving the ashes, and giving passage to the air, is called the Ash-hole. The ash-hole is terminated above the Grate, the use of which is to support the coals and wood, which are to be burnt thereon: this part is called the Fire-place.
• 1856, Benjamin Drew, The Refugee: or the Narratives of Fugitive Slaves in Canada, This provoked the Irishman and his wife, and as the old man was taking out ashes from an ash-hole, the master went down, and as the slave raised his head, the man struck him about the temple, with a long handled scrubbing-brush.
• 1863, Charles Bielefeld, Ballads of Uhland, Goethe, Schiller Chapter Das Lied von der Clocke, The fireplace has a long chimney with an ashhole; the other part of the furnace, which contains the metal, is made either of a circular or oval shape, and vaulted ; its bottom is made of earth, rammed down
• 1904, Francis M. Thompson, History of Greenfield: Shire Town of Franklin County, Massachusetts, As the walls rose to the level of the floors above, the great fireplace and the brick oven with its ash hole below, the smaller fireplaces for the parlor and the spare room were planned out,
• 2009, William Ralston Shedden Ralston, Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-Lore Chapter The Fox Physician, There once was an old couple. The old man planted a cabbage-head in the cellar under the floor of his cottage; the old woman planted one in the ash-hole. The old woman’s cabbage, in the ash-hole, withered away entirely; but the old man’s grew and grew, grew up to the floor.
2. (archaic) A hole or other space into which ashes and other waste are disposed.
• 1859, A Compilation of the Laws of the State of New York, § 19. All ash-holes or ash-houses within the said city shall be built of stone or brick, without the use of wood in any part thereof.
• 1898, Frank R. Stockton, The Girl at Cobhurst, Miss Panney called for an empty coalscuttle, into which she tumbled, without regard to spilling or breakage, the whole mass of medicaments which had been prepared or prescribed by herself, and she then requested the servant to deposit the contents of the scuttle in the ash-hole.

Further reading

• Century 1914|volume=I|page=336|column=2|pos=n|passage=A repository for ashes; the lower part of a furnace; an ash-bin.