ashlar

• ashler

From Middle English assheler, acheler, etc., from Old French esselier (“traverse beam”), diminutive of ais (“plank”) from Latin axis.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈæʃlə/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈæʃlɚ/

ashlar (countable and uncountable, plural ashlars)

1. (architecture) A large cuboid stone; masonry making use of such stone blocks.
   • 1970, Rosemary Sutcliff, The Witch`s Brat (Red Fox 1990), p.83:

     And from the choir itself, where the big hoist was working, came the shouts of the men sweating at the great wheel that swung the cut stones skyward, and the men high overhead on the hurdle-walks, waiting to receive the swinging ashlars and guide them into place.

   • 1973, Kyril Bonfiglioli, Don't Point That Thing at Me, Penguin, published 2001, page 108:

     Even as I babbled, Jock's massy frame filled the doorway, his ill-hewn ashlar head weaving from side to side, eyes blinking at the light.

2. A hurling stone used in warfare.

• ashlaring
• bastard ashlar

• Sharla, lahars