Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A large, usually metal receptacle for trash.
- n. Slang A depth charge.
- n. Slang A powerful cylindrical firecracker.
Wiktionary
- n. A container for ashes, used in times past for accumulating ashes generated from wood and coal fires, for eventual disposal elsewhere. A dustbin.
- n. US, slang A kind of large firecracker.
- adj. Of or pertaining to the Ashcan School of American art.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. a bin that holds rubbish until it is collected.
WordNet 3.0
- n. early 20th-century United States painting; portrays realistic and sordid scenes of city life
- n. a bin that holds rubbish until it is collected
Etymologies
- ash + can (Wiktionary)
Examples
“Before the end of 1939, the Fawcett company created some "ashcan" issues of a new comic book, printed without color and hand-bound, to secure its copyrights and to show to potential advertisers.”
“Some folks at DC might even have gotten a peek at the "ashcan" story of Captain Thunder.”
“She should have been relegated to the ashcan of history a very long time ago.”
“Secretly, you knew your good shoes and your warm lined gloves kept you apart, and safe from the man with the cup in his hand and the boy with the cardboard sign and the woman with the bloated legs and the girls with the begging eyes from the weathered madwomen railing at God and the shadows at the ashcan fires from the need to ask, no choices left:”
“Heubert: The ashcan komiks can also double as coloring books.”
“Another aspirant franchise was strangled in the cradle of its brutal opening weekend: Green Lantern, starring perennial Nearly-Man Ryan Reynolds, won't be back for a sequel; it's bound for the ashcan of failed franchises, home already to Billy Zane's The Phantom and Ben Affleck's Daredevil.”
The Guardian: The Hangover II, Final Destination 5: will the summer of sequels never end?
“Put the completed pages together into a cheap ashcan to give away?”
“What he dont understand is that the dems saw his value in the 2000 election and decided to toss his ashcan under the bus.”
“Each person who has a free comic chosen for him/her will also receive a copy of the 2009 Halloween ashcan edition of either Popeye or Casper/Little Lulu or Star Wars.”
“JMG Studios will provide flyers and wall posters for free upon request, and a customized ashcan at a portion of cost to help promote the comic book.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘ashcan’.
-
Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
-
Just 'cause I like 'em, A
abaculus, abacus, abaft, abarticular, abbreviate, abeyance, abiding, anthocyanin, antemeridian, arcane, adjure, adduce and 418 more...
-
some words
phatic, macerate, amanuenses, theophagy, seraglio, gloaming, geophagy, metaphone, anastrophe, neologism, tetragrammaton, bête noire and 568 more...
-
Ute
Durable items invented by Hom. Sap.
alpenhorn, matchbox, plinth, pillow, cantilever, fulcrum, troika, cloverleaf, nib, wheelbarrow, dictabelt, cockpit and 184 more...
-
Chandler
overmantel, manzanita, icebucket, handhewn, homesteader, caterpillars, eggheaded, ashcan, thumbnail, unclassifiable, nut hatch, unnaturally and 25 more...
-
Baby, You're a Firework
cherry bomb, whizbang, cannon cracker, ladyfinger, banger, cracker, ashcan, gerb, crow scarer, squib, squib-cracker, fizgig and 27 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for ashcan.
mollusque "Two bucks to spend the night in this manhole," I said, "when for free I could have a nice airy ashcan."
--Raymond Chandler, 1943, The Lady in the Lake, chapter 13 Sep 4, 2009
john Synonym for trash can, from the days when wood and coal stoves were common, and the trash was often full of ash.
Also slang for a depth charge. Also an early 20th century American realist art movement. Oct 16, 2007