Showing results for "parched"

• past participle of parch.
• past tense form of parch.

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

• parchedness
  noun
• unparched
  adjective
• parchedly
  adverb

---

Etymology

Origin of parched

parch ( def. ) + -ed ² ( def. )

---

Explanation

Something parched is excessively dry and hot, in extreme need of water, like a desert, a neglected plant, or your throat after a five-kilometer run. Some foods, like corn, beans, or grains, may be parched, or toasted, to bring out their flavor and help preserve them. American Indians parched corn to make it keep and remain edible over the winter. They taught this to the new colonists, and parched corn later became a staple of explorers like Lewis and Clark, as well as soldiers during the Civil War. Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote of parched corn, "It crackled and crunched, and its taste was sweet and brown."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

parched

There are many routes that can take you east from the 395 and deep into the parched heart of these landscapes, but there is one route that stands above the rest.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 29, 2026

Once the flames escaped, they spread into the rainforest's parched understory, the layer of vegetation growing beneath the taller trees.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 18, 2026

El Niño is turning the waterway into another chokepoint in a global economy riddled with them, from the Strait of Hormuz to the parched Rhine.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 29, 2026

The Daily Star follows with the same headline, showing a parched Ascot racecourse on its front page.

From BBC ● Aug. 17, 2026

The lemonade sparkled in the sunlight, like a bejeweled waterfall, and then disappeared without a trace, soaking into the parched September grass.

From "The Lemonade War" by Jacqueline Davies

Random Word

Spin the wheel and learn a new word!

---

Related Words

• arid
• scorched
• thirsty
• withered

---