0 a small dish or container, sometimes decorative, in which people can leave cigarette ash and cigarette butts --
1 a small container in which smokers leave ash and cigarette ends --
However, whereas one might have a closed shop for making plastic ashtrays, one cannot have one when one is dealing with artistic or literary talent.
There must be ashtrays, just as there must be separate areas in which smokers can smoke and non-smokers can feel comfortable.
Moreover, the ashtrays are much easier to clean since they contain no tarry residues that must be scraped off.
That in itself is likely to give rise to a wrong impression in the minds of the recipients of the ashtrays.
I regret that in one case a wrong opinion was expressed on the liability of an ashtray.
These devices can be disguised as ashtrays or cigarette packets.
It is equally impossible to define what is an ashtray, and what is a bowl.
On a table underneath that was an ashtray.
