scorch

[skawrch]

verb (used with object)

1. to affect the color, taste, etc., of by burning slightly.

   The collar of the shirt was yellow where the iron had scorched it.

   Synonyms: blister, char

2. to parch or shrivel with heat.

   The sun scorched the grass.

3. to criticize severely.

   Synonyms: condemn, excoriate
   Antonyms: laud

4. Machinery.,  burn.

5. to destroy (crops, towns, etc.) by or as if by fire in the path of an invading army's advance.

verb (used without object)

1. to become scorched.

   Milk scorches easily.

2. Informal.,  to travel or drive at high speed.

   The car scorched along the highway.

noun

1. a superficial burn.

scorch

/ skɔːtʃ /

verb

1. to burn or become burnt, so as to affect the colour, taste, etc, or to cause or feel pain

2. to wither or parch or cause to wither from exposure to heat

3. informal,  (intr) to be very hot

   it is scorching outside

4. informal,  (tr) to criticize harshly

5. slang,  (intr) to drive or ride very fast

noun

1. a slight burn

2. a mark caused by the application of too great heat

3. horticulture a mark or series of marks on fruit, vegetables, etc, caused by pests or insecticides

Other Word Forms

• unscorched adjective
• well-scorched adjective
• scorching adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of scorch¹

1400–50; late Middle English scorchen, perhaps blend of scorcnen (< Scandinavian; compare Old Norse skorpna to shrivel) and torch ¹

Word History and Origins

Origin of scorch¹

C15: probably from Old Norse skorpna to shrivel up

Synonym Study

See burn ¹.

Example Sentences

It was her first day back, and she had just walked through a sea of scorched Joshua trees rising from blackened earth, their dagger-like leaves bleached an unhealthy yellow.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

However, the papier-mâché seashell was carried by the wind quite a long way before landing—improbably, but not impossibly—in the scorching sands of the Sahara.

Read more on Literature

Dozens of men arrived for the prayers in a show of defiance - their backs turned towards the scorched and blackened wall.

Read more on BBC

Fatima gripped her newborn tightly against her chest as the Tuareg woman queued beneath the scorching Mauritanian afternoon sun to register herself and her child as refugees.

Read more on Barron's

Around him stood scorched hills and the ruins of what was once was a village, briefly occupied by Moscow at the start of its invasion in February 2022 and then destroyed by relentless shelling.

Read more on Barron's

Related Words

• bake 
• blacken 
• char 
• melt 
• parch 
• sear