parch
Americanverb (used with object)
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to make extremely, excessively, or completely dry, as heat, sun, and wind do.
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to make dry, hot, or thirsty.
Walking in the sun parched his throat.
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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.
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to dry or shrivel with cold.
verb (used without object)
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to suffer from heat, thirst, or need of water.
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to become parched; undergo drying by heat.
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to dry (usually followed byup ).
verb
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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
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(tr) to roast (corn, etc) lightly
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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parchsimple
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parchessimple
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have parchedperfect
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has parchedperfect
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am parchingprogressive
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are parchingprogressive
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is parchingprogressive
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have been parchingperfect progressive
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has been parchingperfect progressive
Past
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parchedsimple
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had parchedperfect
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was parchingprogressive
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were parchingprogressive
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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:
Perhaps we, too, are mosses, evolving to the parch of our self-made Mojaves.
From Scientific American ● Nov. 19, 2022
The searing heat, blinding sun, and arid winds that parch the throat and can drive sand and grit into the eyes, make the deserts of the Arabian Peninsula a tough place to survive in.
From BBC ● Sep. 28, 2022
Both developments, he said, are caused by rising global temperatures, which intensify storms during some seasons, then parch the landscape during others.
From Washington Post ● Mar. 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
The soldier loves thee on his dreary march, And when in battle dreadful armies join; ’Tis thou forbids his sulphur’d lips should parch, And gives new strength to charge along the line.
From Nicotiana Or The Smoker's and Snuff-Taker's Companion by Meller, Henry James
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
Fever parches her lips, burns along her throat and eyelids; her ears are hot.
From The New Yorker ● May 20, 2013
Its flower is firm and fresh And stout like sturdiest flesh Of children: all The strenuous blast that parches Spring hurts it not till March is Near his fall.
From Studies in Song, A Century of Roundels, Sonnets on English Dramatic Poets, The Heptalogia, Etc From Swinburne's Poems Volume V. by Swinburne, Algernon Charles
AFP reporters saw firefighters battling to douse the flames sweeping across the parched countryside, sending plumes of white smoke into the air.
From Barron's ● Jul. 10, 2026
If she can prove that cheetahs are worth saving, she thinks, she can help the cheetahs who are living in “the parched grassland she can only imagine. The place that would’ve been her home, too.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 20, 2026
And when hot conditions leave mountain soils parched, melting snow can be absorbed into the ground before runoff reaches streams and rivers.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 15, 2026
Rust-colored mountains tower on the horizon, pale-green succulents defy the parched earth, Spanish-style shingles fill the scenery.
From Slate ● Feb. 23, 2026
He found wood piled by one wall, built up the fire himself, and then with gestures asked for water, for swallowing sea-water had sickened him and now he was parched with thirst.
From "A Wizard of Earthsea" by Ursula K. Le Guin
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
The trend is likely to continue as the climate grows warmer and drier, reducing snowpacks, increasing evaporation and parching soils that absorb runoff.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 18, 2022
After a summer of record-smashing heat, parching drought, and roaring wildfires, devastating rains fell on the region from October to December, causing flash floods and mudslides that trapped hundreds of people.
From Salon ● Dec. 29, 2021
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.
