singe
Americanverb (used with object)
-
singes,
present (3rd person singular)
-
singed,
past participle, past
-
singeing
present participle
noun
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singes
plural
-
a superficial burn.
-
the act of singeing.
verb
-
to burn or be burnt superficially; scorch
to singe one's clothes
-
(tr) to burn the ends of (hair, etc)
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(tr) to expose (a carcass) to flame to remove bristles or hair
noun
Synonym Usage
See burn 1.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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singesimple
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singessimple
-
have singedperfect
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has singedperfect
-
am singeingprogressive
-
are singeingprogressive
-
is singeingprogressive
-
have been singeingperfect progressive
-
has been singeingperfect progressive
Past
-
singedsimple
-
had singedperfect
-
was singeingprogressive
-
were singeingprogressive
-
had been singeingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of singe
First recorded before 1000; Middle English sengen (verb), Old English sencgan; cognate with Dutch zengen, German sengen; akin to Old Norse sangr “singed, burnt”
Explanation
To burn something just a little bit is to singe it. If you get too close to your backyard fire pit, you might singe your shirt sleeve. When you singe your finger on a hot stove, it hurts, and when you singe your scarf on a campfire, you'll smell it starting to burn. The verb singe comes from the Old English root word sengan, "to burn lightly, or to burn the edges." One trick to the word singe is that when you add an ing, you need to be sure you keep the e — otherwise, instead of singeing, you'll be singing.
Vocabulary lists containing singe
"Rikki-Tikki-Tavi" by Rudyard Kipling
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The Sea of Monsters
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"Uprising," Vocabulary from the historical novel
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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 mural survived the Palisades fire with minor singe marks.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 15, 2025
In triple-digit heat, monkey bars singe children’s hands, water bottles warp and seatbelts feel like hot irons.
From New York Times ● Jul. 11, 2023
In a feat of literary alchemy, Kingsolver uses the fire of that boy’s spirit to illuminate — and singe — the darkest recesses of our country.
From Washington Post ● Oct. 25, 2022
Whereas most hot sauces these days are in a competition to see who can singe your tonsils the most, I like that there's an actual balance to Humble House Ancho & Morita.
From Salon ● Mar. 13, 2022
She let my hand go and made a flame so large I felt the hair on the right side of my head singe.
From "Hollow City" by Ransom Riggs
The fried chicken is typically coated in a mixture of cayenne and paprika that singes the tongue.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 15, 2025
In an Aug. 12 inspection, Mr. Nimz found no major signs of char, cracks or singes to the main trunk or most of the tree’s more than 40 aerial roots.
From Washington Times ● Sep. 20, 2023
Then there’s the Chinatown-inspired chicken with cashews, smoky from the wok, which also singes the onions and ginkgo nuts in the assembly.
From Washington Post ● Jul. 22, 2022
Kyrgios beats Rafa, actual pain singes my neural pathways.
From Golf Digest ● Jan. 27, 2020
Awe bleteth after lomb; Lhouth after calve cu: Bulluc sterteth, Buck verteth, Murie sing cuccu, Cuccu, cuccu, Wel singes this cuccu; Ne swik thu naver.
From The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction Volume 13, No. 368, May 2, 1829 by Various
Possibly singed and mostly sandy, they storm the Mediterranean and return to their grills wet, steaming, and triumphant.
From Salon ● Aug. 11, 2026
Hearty slices of calamari singed on the plancha gleam in the fading sunlight.
From Salon ● Aug. 11, 2026
Visually epic, sonically relentless and otherwise fatuous, the film has a dramatic inertia occasionally punctuated by eruptions of utter catastrophe—a series of shocks that leaves you singed, shaken and not much better for it.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 13, 2025
A few hydrangeas were singed five feet from the walls of house, but the home was unscathed.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 11, 2025
Violet moaned her apologies and the woman was satisfied until she discovered that the whole curl was singed clean off.
From "Jazz" by Toni Morrison
For Jessa Calderon, a Chumash and Tongva songwriter, these disconnects are ever-present in the concrete-hardened rivers snaking through Los Angeles, and the sour taste of industrialization often singeing the air.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 11, 2024
I dipped them in the hardening brown goo with the scalding pan resting on a flowery potholder, one at a time, singeing my fingertips and waving my hand in pain.
From Salon ● Dec. 4, 2022
Sometimes he sets fire to the topmost layer, singeing its surface and revealing what’s below.
From The New Yorker ● Mar. 18, 2019
Riggs wrote a singeing rebuttal that The Times published in 1992.
From New York Times ● Feb. 6, 2019
Four of them raced past, their heat singeing the hair off Jason’s arms.
From "The House of Hades" by Rick Riordan
Definitions 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.
