parched
Americanadjective
-
extremely or completely dried, as by heat, sun, or wind.
Dry shrubs cover parts of this parched valley in the South Hebron Hills.
-
very thirsty.
After each shift in the ship’s engine room, I was dead tired and totally parched, needing large amounts of water.
-
(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
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of parched
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."
Vocabulary lists containing parched
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A Long Walk to Water
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Walk Two Moons
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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.
Among those bracing for impact are shipping companies using the Panama Canal, a chokepoint that is tightening just as shipping is throttled from the Strait of Hormuz to the parched Rhine.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 31, 2026
It ignited near a hiking trail in the parched hills just northwest of the city on Saturday.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 26, 2026
The Daily Star follows with the same headline, showing a parched Ascot racecourse on its front page.
From BBC ● Aug. 17, 2026
Delivering droplets onto the parched crops requires meticulous preparation to identify suitable clouds.
From Barron's ● Aug. 12, 2026
Her friendliness, her smile, were warming like the sun on old limbs, gentle as the rain on parched earth.
From "Nectar in a Sieve" by Kamala Markandaya
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
