scorch
Americanverb (used with object)
-
scorches,
present (3rd person singular)
-
scorched,
past participle, past
-
scorching
present participle
-
to affect the color, taste, etc., of by burning slightly.
The collar of the shirt was yellow where the iron had scorched it.
-
to parch or shrivel with heat.
The sun scorched the grass.
-
to criticize severely.
- Antonyms:
- laud
-
Machinery. burn.
-
to destroy (crops, towns, etc.) by or as if by fire in the path of an invading army's advance.
verb (used without object)
-
scorches,
present (3rd person singular)
-
scorched,
past participle, past
-
scorching
present participle
-
to become scorched.
Milk scorches easily.
-
Informal. to travel or drive at high speed.
The car scorched along the highway.
noun
-
scorches
plural
verb
-
to burn or become burnt, so as to affect the colour, taste, etc, or to cause or feel pain
-
to wither or parch or cause to wither from exposure to heat
-
informal (intr) to be very hot
it is scorching outside
-
informal (tr) to criticize harshly
-
slang (intr) to drive or ride very fast
noun
-
a slight burn
-
a mark caused by the application of too great heat
-
horticulture a mark or series of marks on fruit, vegetables, etc, caused by pests or insecticides
Synonym Usage
See burn 1.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
scorchsimple
-
scorchessimple
-
have scorchedperfect
-
has scorchedperfect
-
am scorchingprogressive
-
are scorchingprogressive
-
is scorchingprogressive
-
have been scorchingperfect progressive
-
has been scorchingperfect progressive
Past
-
scorchedsimple
-
had scorchedperfect
-
was scorchingprogressive
-
were scorchingprogressive
-
had been scorchingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of scorch
1400–50; late Middle English scorchen, perhaps blend of scorcnen (< Scandinavian; compare Old Norse skorpna to shrivel) and torch 1
Explanation
To scorch is to burn something fiercely, to the point where its surface — your face, prairie grass, a steak on the grill — chars or otherwise changes color. Although scorch usually refers to burning something (whether it's the sun or a blowtorch doing the burning), that's not always the case. An army can scorch an enemy territory — meaning raze everything in sight, without technically setting it on fire. Scorch can also mean to quickly overpower something or somebody, as in: "We're gonna scorch the other team tomorrow."
Vocabulary lists containing scorch
The Sweltering Words of Summer
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Vocabulary from history writings about the Triangle Factory Fire
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Term-ometer: Synonyms for "Hot"
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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:
The schoolgirl was named a Games MVP on Sunday to cap an extraordinary showing that saw her scorch to gold in the 200m butterfly and do the 200m-400m individual medley double.
From Barron's ● Oct. 4, 2026
Their complaints echo a broader unease that has followed solar's expansion into rural Texas - worries about visual impact, water runoff after land is cleared, and battery storage units that scorch their land.
From BBC ● Sep. 23, 2026
Faint scorch marks could have formed when the pot was originally fired, or they may have appeared later if the vessel was set close to a fire to warm individual servings of food.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 22, 2026
The iPhone 15 and iPhone 16 models crossing Jones’s desk appear at first glance to be completely fine—no broken screen, no scorch marks.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 13, 2026
When White left the Tribune offices, fires were burning on all sides, but, aside from blackened scorch marks, his building stood tall and proud.
From "The Great Fire" by Jim Murphy
While it has been widely reported that the helicopters' exhaust scorches grass, Trump added Monday that the airflow is so powerful, the lawn actually "gets ripped out."
From Barron's ● Jul. 6, 2026
The Hammond B3 swells on the verse’s first pass, sticking close to the song’s melody, but on the second, it jumps an octave in an improvisation that nearly scorches the ear.
From Salon ● May 15, 2026
The scene in which Biff almost violently embraces Willy and tries—in vain—to make him discard his illusions scorches with its sadness.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 10, 2026
The Illinois State Journal declared in a July 8 headline, “Heat wave scorches Midwest: many die.”
From Washington Post ● Jul. 20, 2022
It scorches my blood and sears my thoughts.
From "Without Refuge" by Jane Mitchell
Tommy Edman led off with a single, and then Betts scorched a 100.9-mph one-hopper at shortstop Cooper Pratt, who mishandled it, giving Betts a single to put two runners on.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 13, 2026
Pluskalowski has recently become obsessed with making a taco shell from tahdig, the scorched rice at the bottom of a pot of Persian rice.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 9, 2026
A wildfire that scorched 42,000 hectares in southwest France has finally been declared extinguished, two months after the country's largest blaze since 1949 broke out, authorities said Monday.
From Barron's ● Sep. 28, 2026
On Cannock Chase, I spent the day with Staffordshire County Council rangers, as they showed me around the black, scorched earth left behind after the fires that took place there.
From BBC ● Sep. 14, 2026
He returned to the ring around the bed and filled his hands and pockets with the salt that had scorched the intruder the night before.
From "Fablehaven" by Brandon Mull
A scorching hot planet nearly 320 light-years from Earth has provided the first direct evidence for a fundamental assumption about how planets form.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 14, 2026
“A scorching mid-September may enhance the seasonal cliff in power sector gas burns ahead.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 16, 2026
At least 35,000 excess deaths have been linked to the scorching heat waves in Europe over the summer, though that is likely an undercount.
From Salon ● Sep. 5, 2026
Much of that was due to the scorching heat throughout the Southland, which reached a heat index about 100 at the Coliseum on Saturday.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 2, 2026
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.
From "The Long-Lost Home" by Maryrose Wood
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