Hypertext Webster Gateway: "scorch"
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)
Scorch \Scorch\, v. i.
1. To be burnt on the surface; to be parched; to be dried up.
Scatter a little mungy straw or fern amongst your
seedlings, to prevent the roots from scorching.
--Mortimer.
2. To burn or be burnt.
He laid his long forefinger on the scarlet letter,
which forthwith seemed to scorch into Hester's
breast, as if it had been red hot. --Hawthorne.
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)
Scorch \Scorch\ (sk[^o]rch), v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Scorched}; p.
pr. & vb. n. {Scorching}.] [OE. scorchen, probably akin to
scorcnen; cf. Norw. skrokken shrunk up, skrekka, skr["o]kka,
to shrink, to become wrinkled up, dial. Sw. skr[*a]kkla to
wrinkle (see {Shrug}); but perhaps influenced by OF.
escorchier to strip the bark from, to flay, to skin, F.
['e]corcher, LL. excorticare; L. ex from + cortex, -icis,
bark (cf. {Cork}); because the skin falls off when scorched.]
1. To burn superficially; to parch, or shrivel, the surface
of, by heat; to subject to so much heat as changes color
and texture without consuming; as, to scorch linen.
Summer drouth or sing[`e]d air Never scorch thy
tresses fair. --Milton.
2. To affect painfully with heat, or as with heat; to dry up
with heat; to affect as by heat.
Lashed by mad rage, and scorched by brutal fires.
--Prior.
3. To burn; to destroy by, or as by, fire.
Power was given unto him to scorch men with fire.
--Rev. xvi. 8.
The fire that scorches me to death. --Dryden.
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)
Scorch \Scorch\, v. i.
To ride or drive at great, usually at excessive, speed; --
applied chiefly to automobilists and bicyclists. [Colloq.] --
{Scorch"er}, n. [Colloq.]
From WordNet (r) 1.7 (wn)
scorch
n 1: a surface burn [syn: {singe}]
2: a discoloration caused by heat
v 1: make very hot; "searing heat" [syn: {sear}]
2: burn so as to affect color or taste; "blackened chicken
breast"; "The ceiling above the fireplace was charred"
[syn: {char}, {blacken}]
3: burn superficially or lightly; "I singed my eyebrows" [syn:
{singe}, {swinge}]
4: cause to wither or parch from exposure to heat; "The sun
parched the earth" [syn: {parch}, {sear}]
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