parched

American  

[pahrcht] / pɑrtʃt /

adjective

1. extremely or completely dried, as by heat, sun, or wind.

   Dry shrubs cover parts of this parched valley in the South Hebron Hills.

2. very thirsty.

   After each shift in the ship’s engine room, I was dead tired and totally parched, needing large amounts of water.

3. (of peas, beans, grains, etc.) slightly toasted or roasted.

   The village folk customarily have one meal a day of parched grains, so there is always a crowd around the old widow’s oven.

---

verb

1. the simple past tense and past participle of parch.

Other Word Forms

• parchedly adverb
• parchedness noun
• unparched adjective

Etymology

Origin of parched

parch ( def. ) + -ed ² ( def. )

Example Sentences

That’s not just from the recent storms — early-season rains tend to soak into the parched ground — but also because California is building on three prior wet winters, state climatologist Michael Anderson said.

From Los Angeles Times

Those parched landscapes have gotten a temporary reprieve by way of a historically wet winter.

From Washington Times

Chase makes virtuosically parched, percussive exhalations; she can be sheerly sweet on the standard flute and has, on the enormous contrabass flute, the milky penetration of a whale’s deep-sea call.

From New York Times

With an incredibly wet winter comes a major shift in the landscape of previously parched California.

From Los Angeles Times

Several sets of human remains were pulled from the parched lake last year, the discoveries driven by a two-decade drought made worse by climate change.

From New York Times

Related Words

• arid
• scorched
• thirsty
• withered