Dictionary

ashy en · ADJ

Pronunciation

• (Southern-England) audio
• /ˈæʃi/

Etymology

From Middle English asshy, asky, equivalent to ash + -y.

Meanings

1. Resembling ashes (especially in colour); (of a person’s complexion) unusually pale as a result of strong emotion, illness, etc.
   • Again the operation; again the narcotic; again some return of colour to the ashy cheeks, and the regular breathing of healthy sleep. 1897, Bram Stoker, chapter 11, in Dracula, New York, N.Y.: Modern Library, →OCLC, chapter IX, page 126:
   • Beyond that black clot the sea lay, pale with last ashy gleam of day. 1968, Ursula K. Le Guin, chapter 7, in A Wizard of Earthsea, page 123:
   • Still is he sullein, still he lowres and frets, / Twixt crimson shame, and anger ashie pale, 1593, [William Shakespeare], Venus and Adonis, London: […] Richard Field, […], →OCLC:
   • Tell her that sicknesse, with her ashie hand, / Hath swept away the beauty from my cheekes, 1634 (first performance), Thomas Heywood, Loves Maistresse: Or, The Queens Masque. […], London: […] Robert Raworth, for Iohn Crowch; and are to bee sold by Iasper Emery, […], published 1636, →OCLC, Act IIII:
2. Comprising, containing, or covered with ash.
   • Ye heauenly spirites, whose ashie cinders lie / Vnder deep ruines, with huge walls opprest, 1591, Joachim du Bellay, “Ruines of Rome: By Bellay”, in Ed[mund] Sp[enser], transl., Complaints. Containing Sundrie Small Poemes of the Worlds Vanitie. […], London: […] William Ponsonbie, […], →OCLC:
   • [W]here yet the Embers glow, / Wide o’er the Pyle the sable Wine they throw, / And deep subsides the ashy Heap below. 1720, Homer, “Book XXIII”, in Alexander Pope, transl., The Iliad of Homer, volume VI, London: […] W[illiam] Bowyer, for Bernard Lintott […], →OCLC, page 75:
   • […] I saw her sitting on the hearth in a ragged chair, close before, and lost in the contemplation of, the ashy fire. 1860 December – 1861 August, Charles Dickens, chapter X, in Great Expectations […], volume III, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published October 1861, →OCLC, page 151:
   • He lit the paper until it burned to an ashy film. 1991, Edwidge Danticat, “A Wall of Fire Rising”, in Krik? Krak!, New York: Soho Press:
3. (qualifier:African-American Vernacular) Having dry or dead skin (therefore discolored).
   • After passing it under her runny nose, a skinny chalk-colored girl raised a hand so disgustingly ashy, so white and dry-skinned, that it could only be black. 2015, Paul Beatty, chapter 11, in The Sellout, New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, page 159:
   • It was summer and his pants were short, so the pickle juice made clean streams down his ashy legs[…] 1969, Maya Angelou, chapter 4, in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, New York: Random House, →ISBN, page 22:

Forms

Deriveds

ashy prinia · ashy silktassel · ashy woodswallow · ashy woodpecker · ashy-headed goose · ashy minivet · ashy-headed laughingthrush · ashiness · ashily · ashy tit

Synonyms

cineraceous · cinereous · ashen · cinereous

Translations (14)

sv askfärgad (having the color of ashes) · pl popielaty (having the color of ashes) · es ceniciento (having the color of ashes) · sv askig (having the color of ashes) · de aschfahl (having the color of ashes) · la cinereus (having the color of ashes) · es cinéreo (having the color of ashes) · sv askgrå (having the color of ashes) · la cineraceus (having the color of ashes) · fi tuhkanvärinen (having the color of ashes) · gl cincento (having the color of ashes) · pl ziemisty (having dry or dead skin) · enm asshy (having the color of ashes) · ro cenușiu (having the color of ashes)