parch
Americanverb (used with object)
-
parches,
present (3rd person singular)
-
parched,
past participle, past
-
parching
present participle
-
to make extremely, excessively, or completely dry, as heat, sun, and wind do.
-
to make dry, hot, or thirsty.
Walking in the sun parched his throat.
-
to dry (peas, beans, grain, etc.) by exposure to heat without burning; to toast or roast slightly.
A staple of the Indian diet was parched corn.
-
to dry or shrivel with cold.
verb (used without object)
-
parches,
present (3rd person singular)
-
parched,
past participle, past
-
parching
present participle
-
to suffer from heat, thirst, or need of water.
-
to become parched; undergo drying by heat.
-
to dry (usually followed byup ).
verb
-
to deprive or be deprived of water; dry up
the sun parches the fields
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(tr; usually passive) to make very thirsty
I was parched after the run
-
(tr) to roast (corn, etc) lightly
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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parchsimple
-
parchessimple
-
have parchedperfect
-
has parchedperfect
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am parchingprogressive
-
are parchingprogressive
-
is parchingprogressive
-
have been parchingperfect progressive
-
has been parchingperfect progressive
Past
-
parchedsimple
-
had parchedperfect
-
was parchingprogressive
-
were parchingprogressive
-
had been parchingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of parch
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English perchen; further origin unknown
Explanation
If you don't water your lawn all summer, the hot weather will parch the grass until it's brown and withered. To parch is to dry up or wither due to sunlight or heat. The verb parch is often used in the context of plants and people. Crops will parch during a drought. A patient's skin will parch during an intense fever. If you're a fan of cooking shows, you may hear the word used in a less dire way. A chef may "parch some corn," which basically means she will roast it lightly. Parch can also mean "to make thirsty," as in "After running a marathon in this heat, you'll feel parched."
Vocabulary lists containing parch
The Birchbark House
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"Ode on a Grecian Urn" by John Keats
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Shabanu
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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:
As the south of England continues to enjoy an unusually warm and dry summer, parch marks on lawns across the region have revealed the hidden histories of their location.
From BBC ● Aug. 9, 2026
“Griffith cast a malevolent parch over the throats of local fandom by stating that inasmuch as beer never had been sold in his park, it would not now,” The Washington Post reported, sadly.
From Washington Post ● Apr. 11, 2023
Perhaps we, too, are mosses, evolving to the parch of our self-made Mojaves.
From Scientific American ● Nov. 19, 2022
Many have fled, heading to neighboring Iran or living in abject poverty in camps for the displaced within Afghanistan as repeated droughts parch the land and shrivel pastures.
From Seattle Times ● Dec. 22, 2021
They parch meal in the oven and bile it and drink the liquor.
From Slave Narratives: a Folk History of Slavery in the United States From Interviews with Former Slaves Texas Narratives, Part 1 by Work Projects Administration
The unusual intensity of some of the fires underlines the increasing risk the continent faces as climate change parches vegetation and makes the emergencies more extreme, scientists say.
From Barron's ● Jul. 30, 2026
Hot, dry weather parches the landscape, creating more fuel to feed fires.
From The Verge ● Aug. 6, 2021
As people move up the slopes a pattern repeats: drought parches the land, turning grass into kindling.
From The Guardian ● Jan. 14, 2018
As climate change parches more areas of the U.S., wildfires are increasing in frequency, and their season is starting earlier and lasting longer.
From New York Times ● Apr. 13, 2016
She had gone through the horrors of war, as through a flame that dries up and parches everything it touches, and in the end converts it to dust.
From The Enemies of Women (Los enemigos de la mujer) by Vicente Blasco Ib??ez
It ignited near a hiking trail in the parched hills just northwest of the city on Saturday.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 26, 2026
A scorching summer has shrunk rivers, parched crops and tested the continent’s infrastructure.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 20, 2026
He arranged the private screening to symbolically request Robert De Niro’s blessing to play the dangerously charismatic Max Cady, an ex-con parched for revenge against those who had a hand in his imprisonment.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 31, 2026
Conditions in the most parched areas of the United Kingdom could worsen before they improve, according to the latest forecasts.
From BBC ● Jul. 31, 2026
My brothers complained about the lack of worms for fishing and the difficulty of digging for them in the hard, parched ground.
From "The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate" by Jacqueline Kelly
This manifested throughout 2024 in so-called “weird weather,” from unusually extreme hurricanes and floods to intense heat waves, parching droughts and unprecedented wildfires.
From Salon ● Dec. 30, 2024
Warm weather already appears to be parching vegetation and making it more flammable, as the many blazes that began over the past few days have shown.
From New York Times ● Jun. 20, 2024
In addition, a severe drought is parching Italy.
From Seattle Times ● Jul. 17, 2022
He says the authorities may soon be caught out by La Niña, a sodden period which often follows El Niño’s parching.
From Economist ● Apr. 28, 2016
They already had a pile of birds large enough to fill the biggest parching tray, which Angeline had fetched from the camp.
From "The Birchbark House" by Louise Erdrich
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.
