ash-hole

English

Alternative forms

• ashhole, ash hole, asshole

Etymology

Compound of ash +‎ hole. First attested in the 17th century.

Noun

ash-hole (plural ash-holes)

1. A hole beneath a fireplace or a receptacle in a furnace to receive falling ash.
   • 1764, Pierre Joseph MacQuer, translated by Andrew Reid, Elements of the Theory and Practice of Chymistry‎^[1], volume 1, page 180:

     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, page 160:

     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, “Das Lied von der Clocke”, in Ballads of Uhland, Goethe, Schiller‎^[2], page 171:

     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^[3], volume II, page 960:

     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 [1887], William Ralston Shedden Ralston, “The Fox Physician”, in Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-Lore, page 285:

     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^[4], page 57:

     § 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.

See also

• ash-bin
• ashcan

 

Further reading

• William Dwight Whitney and Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1914), “ash-hole, n.”, in The Century Dictionary: An Encyclopedic Lexicon of the English Language, revised edition, volume I, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC, page 336, column 2: “A repository for ashes; the lower part of a furnace; an ash-bin.”.