Adjacent Words

Potash definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

POT'ASH, n. [pot and ashes.] The popular name of vegetable fixed alkali in an impure state, procured from the ashes of plants by lixiviation and evaporation. The matter remaining after evaporation is refined in a crucible or furnace, and the extractive substance burnt off or dissipated. Refined potash is called pearlash. The plants which yield the greatest quantity of potash are wormwood and fumitory.
By recent discoveries of Sir H. Davy, it appears that potash is a metallic oxyd; the metal is called potassium, and the alkali, in books of science, is called potassa.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: a potassium compound often used in agriculture and industry [syn: potash, caustic potash, potassium hydroxide]

Merriam Webster's

noun Etymology: singular of pot ashes Date: 1748 1. potassium carbonate especially from wood ashes 2. potassium or a potassium compound especially as used in agriculture or industry

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. an alkaline potassium compound, usu. potassium carbonate or hydroxide. Etymology: 17th-c. pot-ashes f. Du. pot-asschen (as POT(1), ASH(1)): orig. obtained by leaching vegetable ashes and evaporating the solution in iron pots

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Potash Pot"ash`, n. [Pot + ash.] (Chem.) (a) The hydroxide of potassium hydrate, a hard white brittle substance, KOH, having strong caustic and alkaline properties; -- hence called also caustic potash. (b) The impure potassium carbonate obtained by leaching wood ashes, either as a strong solution (lye), or as a white crystalline (pearlash).

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

Potash is a white powder obtained from the ashes of burnt wood and is sometimes used as a fertilizer.

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

n. Potassa, protoxide of potassium.