Definition of Ashcan

1. Noun. A bin that holds rubbish until it is collected.


Definition of Ashcan

1. Noun. A container for ashes, used in times past for accumulating ashes generated from wood and coal fires, for eventual disposal elsewhere. A dustbin. ¹

2. Noun. (US slang) A kind of large firecracker. ¹

3. Adjective. Of or pertaining to the Ashcan School of American art. ¹

¹ Source: wiktionary.com

Definition of Ashcan

1. a metal receptacle for garbage [n -S]

Lexicographical Neighbors of Ashcan

ash tree
ash wednesday
ashake
asham'd
ashame
ashamed
ashamed(p)
ashamedly
ashamedness
ashames
ashaming
ashbin
ashburtonite
ashcake
ashcakes
ashcan (current term)
ashcans
ashdump door
ashed
ashen
ashen-faced
ashen tuber
ashen tubercle
ashen wing
ashenly
ashenness
asheries
asherman disease
ashers
ashery

Literary usage of Ashcan

Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:

1. 150 Years of Philadelphia Painters and Paintings: Selections from the Sewell by Sewell C. Biggs Museum of American Art, Milo. M. Naeve, Library Company of Philadelphia (1999)
"Among artists of "The Eight," or "ashcan School," Wagner surely knew, or knew of, Glackens, George Luks, and Everett Shinn in the well-acquainted community ..."

2. Transactions by American Society of Mechanical Engineers (1916)
"... picket fence and ashcan types of makeshifts will persist in offending the eye. It is not necessary to dwell on the unsightliness of these contraptions, ..."

3. The Living Age by Making of America Project, Eliakim Littell, Robert S. Littell (1844)
"Throwing all scientific deductions into the ashcan, the Germans, under Hitler, have invented a theory to fit into their scheme of 'Blood and Soil. ..."

4. The Popular Theatre by George Jean Nathan (1918)
"... are two: cither that Mr. Dale in his profes- son of play reviewer has for thirty years been selling his birthright for a mess of ashcan notoriety, ..."

5. The Cinderellas of the Fleet by William Washburn Nutting (1920)
"This highly-revered shipmate known to our own gobs as the ashcan, contained 250 pounds of TNT and could be set to explode at any predetermined depth. ..."

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