Cinders - a girl slaving, initially (5)

I believe the answer is:

ashes

'cinders' is the definition.
(thesaurus)

'a girl slaving initially' is the wordplay.
'girl' becomes 'she' (**).
'initially' indicates taking the first letters.
The first letter of 'slaving' is 's'.
'a'+'she'+'s'='ASHES'

(Other definitions for ashes that I've seen before include "''... to ..., dust to dust'' (burial service)" , "sports contest" , "trees" , "Test cricket series" , "Eng./Aus. cricket trophy" .)

I've seen this clue in The Telegraph.

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