scorch
Americanverb (used with object)
-
to affect the color, taste, etc., of by burning slightly.
The collar of the shirt was yellow where the iron had scorched it.
-
to parch or shrivel with heat.
The sun scorched the grass.
-
to criticize severely.
- Antonyms:
- laud
-
Machinery. burn.
-
to destroy (crops, towns, etc.) by or as if by fire in the path of an invading army's advance.
verb (used without object)
-
to become scorched.
Milk scorches easily.
-
Informal. to travel or drive at high speed.
The car scorched along the highway.
noun
verb
-
to burn or become burnt, so as to affect the colour, taste, etc, or to cause or feel pain
-
to wither or parch or cause to wither from exposure to heat
-
informal (intr) to be very hot
it is scorching outside
-
informal (tr) to criticize harshly
-
slang (intr) to drive or ride very fast
noun
-
a slight burn
-
a mark caused by the application of too great heat
-
horticulture a mark or series of marks on fruit, vegetables, etc, caused by pests or insecticides
Synonym Usage
See burn 1.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
scorchsimple
-
scorchessimple
-
have scorchedperfect
-
has scorchedperfect
-
am scorchingprogressive
-
are scorchingprogressive
-
is scorchingprogressive
-
have been scorchingperfect progressive
-
has been scorchingperfect progressive
Past
-
scorchedsimple
-
had scorchedperfect
-
was scorchingprogressive
-
were scorchingprogressive
-
had been scorchingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of scorch
1400–50; late Middle English scorchen, perhaps blend of scorcnen (< Scandinavian; compare Old Norse skorpna to shrivel) and torch 1
Explanation
To scorch is to burn something fiercely, to the point where its surface — your face, prairie grass, a steak on the grill — chars or otherwise changes color. Although scorch usually refers to burning something (whether it's the sun or a blowtorch doing the burning), that's not always the case. An army can scorch an enemy territory — meaning raze everything in sight, without technically setting it on fire. Scorch can also mean to quickly overpower something or somebody, as in: "We're gonna scorch the other team tomorrow."
Vocabulary lists containing scorch
The Sweltering Words of Summer
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Vocabulary from history writings about the Triangle Factory Fire
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Term-ometer: Synonyms for "Hot"
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
“In a physical attack, you can crash into drones, trap them in a net or scorch them with a laser,” said Andres Gomez, an electronics engineer at Aeronautical Industry.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 30, 2025
"How are you going to know that's overheating or that there's a faulty cable or a faulty connection or scorch marks or anything on that plug if you can't see it?"
From BBC ● Dec. 20, 2025
All eyes then turned on the final racer, the 25-year-old Braathen keeping his calm to scorch through to a historic victory for his adopted homeland.
From Barron's ● Nov. 16, 2025
The Franklin fire would go on to scorch over 4,000 acres of the Santa Monica Mountains over the course of a week and destroy 20 structures.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 10, 2025
Remember, Mia had said: Sometimes you need to scorch everything to the ground and start over.
From "Little Fires Everywhere" by Celeste Ng
While it has been widely reported that the helicopters' exhaust scorches grass, Trump added Monday that the airflow is so powerful, the lawn actually "gets ripped out."
From Barron's ● Jul. 6, 2026
The Hammond B3 swells on the verse’s first pass, sticking close to the song’s melody, but on the second, it jumps an octave in an improvisation that nearly scorches the ear.
From Salon ● May 15, 2026
The scene in which Biff almost violently embraces Willy and tries—in vain—to make him discard his illusions scorches with its sadness.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 10, 2026
The Illinois State Journal declared in a July 8 headline, “Heat wave scorches Midwest: many die.”
From Washington Post ● Jul. 20, 2022
It scorches my blood and sears my thoughts.
From "Without Refuge" by Jane Mitchell
Three men were arrested on Saturday in Gironde -- where a wildfire has already scorched 32,000 hectares -- on suspicion of endangering lives, prosecutors said.
From Barron's ● Jul. 26, 2026
However, the series of heatwaves in late June scorched off grasslands across Wales.
From BBC ● Jul. 24, 2026
“We’ve had a fire in the cabin; it was a mobile phone that scorched the inside of the cabin,” a pilot on board the BA flight radioed to air-traffic controllers.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 18, 2026
It left a scorched black mark on his orange rayon shirt that made him look like a superhero.
From Salon ● Jul. 3, 2026
Of course if he’d still had his magic, he could have just wished the scorched digits better.
From "Artemis Fowl" by Eoin Colfer
Whipped by strong winds amid 100-plus degree temperatures, that spark grew into California’s fourth-largest wildfire on record, ultimately scorching some 429,000 acres and destroying 427 homes.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 25, 2026
Wangchuk was sitting on hunger strike in the scorching summer, consuming nothing but salt and water.
From BBC ● Jul. 18, 2026
Canada and Minnesota are ablaze in the scorching, dry heat.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 17, 2026
Natural disasters are common across China, particularly in the summer when some regions experience intense rainfall while others bake in scorching heat.
From Barron's ● Jul. 7, 2026
I’ll sleep here if I have to and wait in the scorching heat all day tomorrow.
From "I Am the Messenger" by Markus Zusak
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
