a piece of incombustible material left after the combustion of coal, coke, etc; clinker a piece of charred material that burns without flames; ember - Also called: sinter
any solid waste from smelting or refining - (plural)
fragments of volcanic lava; scoriae
WordReference Random House Learner's Dictionary of American English © 2025
cin•der /ˈsɪndɚ/USA pronunciation
n. [countable]
WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2025- a burned piece of coal, wood, etc.:a smoldering cinder.
- cinders, [plural] anything left over after burning;
ashes:Cinders from the volcano fell on the car. - to a cinder, completely black:The cookies she had left in the oven had burned to a cinder.
cin•der
(sin′dər),USA pronunciation n.
v.t.
v.i.
cin′der•y, cin′der•ous, adj.
cin′der•like′, adj.
- a partially or mostly burned piece of coal, wood, etc.
- cinders:
- any residue of combustion;
ashes. - Rocks[Geol.]coarse scoriae erupted by volcanoes.
- any residue of combustion;
- a live, flameless coal;
ember. - [Metall.]
- Metallurgyslag (def. 1).
- Metallurgya mixture of ashes and slag.
v.t.
- to spread cinders on:The highway department salted and cindered the icy roads.
- [Archaic.]to reduce to cinders.
v.i.
- to spread cinders on a surface, as a road or sidewalk:My neighbor began cindering as soon as the first snowflake fell.
- French cendre ashes
- bef. 900; Middle English synder, Old English sinder slag; cognate with German Sinter, Old Norse sindr; c- (for s-)
cin′der•like′, adj.
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