A trash can or garbage container, especially one designed to hold ashes from a fire or stove; can also refer to cheap or pulpy magazines.
From ash plus can; originally literal metal containers for fireplace ashes, later generalized to any trash receptacle, and later used metaphorically for low-quality literature.
The term 'Ashcan School' refers to early 20th-century painters who depicted urban realism and gritty city life—they were called this because critics said their subjects belonged in a trash can, but they embraced the insult.
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