Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A small piece of burned or partly burned substance, such as coal, that is not reduced to ashes but is incapable of further combustion.
  • noun A piece of charred substance that can burn further but without flame.
  • noun Ashes.
  • noun Slag from a metal furnace.
  • transitive verb To burn or reduce to cinders.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A piece or mass of any substance that has been partially consumed or calcined by heat and then quenched: as, the cinder of a forge.
  • noun A small live coal among ashes; an ember.
  • noun pl. The mass of ashes, with small fragments of unconsumed coal interspersed, which remains after imperfect combustion, or after a fire has gone out. (See coke.)
  • noun plural In geology, coarse ash or scoriæ thrown out of volcanos. (See ash.) This material when solidified becomes tuff or tufa.
  • noun One of the scales thrown off by iron when it is worked by the blacksmith.
  • noun In metallurgy, slag, especially that produced in making pig-iron in the blast-furnace.
  • noun Any strong liquor, as brandy, whisky, sherry, etc., mixed with a weaker beverage, as soda-water, lemonade, water, etc., to fortify it; a “stick.”

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun Partly burned or vitrified coal, or other combustible, in which fire is extinct.
  • noun A hot coal without flame; an ember.
  • noun A scale thrown off in forging metal.
  • noun The slag of a furnace, or scoriaceous lava from a volcano.
  • noun a framework of wire in front of the tubes of a locomotive, to arrest the escape of cinders.
  • noun (Metal.) the opening in a blast furnace, through which melted cinder flows out.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Partially or mostly burnt material that results from incomplete combustion of coal or wood etc.
  • noun An ember.
  • noun Slag from a metal furnace.
  • verb transitive to reduce something to cinders

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a fragment of incombustible matter left after a wood or coal or charcoal fire

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Alteration (influenced by Old French cendre, ashes) of Middle English sinder, from Old English, slag, dross.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English cinder, sinder, from Old English sinder ("cinder, dross, slag, scoria, dross of iron, impurity of metal"), from Proto-Germanic *sindran, *sindraz, *sendraz (“dross, cinder, slag”), from Proto-Indo-European *sendʰro- (“coagulating fluid, liquid slag, scale, cinder”). Cognate with Scots sinder ("ember, cinder"), West Frisian sindel, sintel ("cinder, slag"), Dutch sintel ("cinder, ember, slag"), Middle Low German sinder, sinter ("cinder, slag"), German Sinter ("dross of iron, scale"), Danish sinder ("spark of ignited iron, cinder"), Swedish sinder ("slag or dross from a forge"), Icelandic sindur ("scoring"), Old Church Slavonic сядра ("lime cinder, gypsum"). Spelling (c- for s-) influenced by unrelated French cendre ("ashes").

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Examples

  • To remedy this inconvenience, they make use of another material, which they call cinder, it being nothing else but the refuse of the ore, after the melting hath been extracted, which, being melted with the other in due quantity, gives it that excellent temper of toughness for which this iron is preferred before any other that is brought from foreign parts.

    Iron Making in the Olden Times as instanced in the Ancient Mines, Forges, and Furnaces of The Forest of Dean 1846

  • To remedy this inconvenience, they make use of another material which they call cinder, it being nothing else but the refuse of the ore after the melting hath been extracted, which, being melted with the other in due quantity, gives it that excellent temper of toughness for which this iron is preferred before any other that is brought from foreign parts.

    The Forest of Dean An Historical and Descriptive Account 1846

  • "By this simple process," said he, "all the earthy particles are pressed out and the iron becomes at once free from dross, and what is usually called cinder, and is compressed into a fibrous and tough state."

    Industrial Biography Smiles, Samuel, 1812-1904 1863

  • "By this simple process," said he, "all the earthy particles are pressed out and the iron becomes at once free from dross, and what is usually called cinder, and is compressed into a fibrous and tough state."

    Industrial Biography, Iron Workers and Tool Makers Samuel Smiles 1858

  • When she had done her work she used to go into the chimney-corner and sit down among cinders and ashes, which made her commonly be called a cinder maid; but the youngest, who was not so rude and uncivil as the eldest, called her Cinderella.

    Cinderella; or, The Little Glass Slipper and Other Stories Anonymous

  • The case, a classic of SHC, has long been known as the "cinder woman" mystery.

    FOXNews.com foxnewsonline@foxnews.com 2011

  • -- Lead, or any other metal except gold or silver, is calcined in the air; the metal loses its characteristic properties, and is changed into a powdery substance, a kind of cinder or calx.

    The Story of Alchemy and the Beginnings of Chemistry M. M. Pattison Muir

  • It says that the best way to remove a cinder from your eye is to place under your eyelid the eyeball of a lobster.

    Gene's true calling ... is calling 2011

  • The commandments are featured on 81/2-by-11 pieces of paper in six schools, generally hung on white cinder block near main entrances and hallways.

    Ten Commandments in school stirs fight in Va. district Kevin Sieff 2011

  • The commandments are featured on 81/2-by-11 pieces of paper in six schools, generally hung on white cinder block near main entrances and hallways.

    Ten Commandments in school stirs fight in Va. district Kevin Sieff 2011

Comments

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  • Surprising etymology. This seems an obvious borrowing, French cendre, Latin cinerem, but in fact is unrelated. It's native English and was originally 'sinder' (cognate with 'sinter' of similar meaning, from German). The original meaning was "slag, scoria". The change of spelling to c- under French/Latin influence also led to a slight shift in meaning.

    September 11, 2008

  • I did not know this. Thanks! Such things are fascinating. Like the fact that the words "island" and "isle" are completely unrelated eytmologically.

    September 11, 2008