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.

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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

Is there such a thing as a soaking wet wit, the opposite of the parched variety, because he has that, too.

From Los Angeles Times

Dry soils and a parched atmosphere drank up the runoff before it could flow into storage.

From Los Angeles Times

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

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

The 160-acre parcel, in the parched, south-central San Luis Valley of Colorado, had been decimated by drought and overdrawn water rights and was no longer viable for farming crops or livestock.

From The Wall Street Journal

Related Words

• arid
• scorched
• thirsty
• withered