Definition of "wood-ashes" [wood-ashes]

• The remains of burned wood or plants. (noun)

The Century Dictionary (Public Domain)

• "He was only a young man, and a dandy at that, his face blackened with charcoal, his hair whitened with wood-ashes, with the freshly severed tail of a wild pig thrust through his perforated nose, and two more thrust through his ears."
• "The Russian half-breed wife of Bettles sought the fireplace, inconsolable, and rocked back and forth, and ever and anon flung white wood-ashes upon her raven hair."
• "His mother strewed wood-ashes on her head and blackened her face."