scorch
    n 1: a surface burn [syn: scorch, singe]
    2: a plant disease that produces a browning or scorched
       appearance of plant tissues
    3: a discoloration caused by heat
    v 1: make very hot and dry; "The heat scorched the countryside"
         [syn: sear, scorch]
    2: become superficially burned; "my eyebrows singed when I bent
       over the flames" [syn: scorch, sear, singe]
    3: destroy completely by or as if by fire; "The wildfire
       scorched the forest and several homes"; "the invaders
       scorched the land"
    4: burn slightly and superficially so as to affect color; "The
       cook blackened the chicken breast"; "The fire charred the
       ceiling above the mantelpiece"; "the flames scorched the
       ceiling" [syn: char, blacken, sear, scorch]
    5: become scorched or singed under intense heat or dry
       conditions; "The exposed tree scorched in the hot sun"

Scorch \Scorch\, v. i.
   1. To be burnt on the surface; to be parched; to be dried up.
      [1913 Webster]

            Scatter a little mungy straw or fern amongst your
            seedlings, to prevent the roots from scorching.
                                                  --Mortimer.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. To burn or be burnt.
      [1913 Webster]

            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.
      [1913 Webster]

   3. To ride or drive at great, usually at excessive, speed; --
      applied chiefly to automobilists and bicyclists. [Colloq.]
      -- Scorch"er, n. [Colloq.]

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.
      [1913 Webster]

            Summer drouth or sing[`e]d air
            Never scorch thy tresses fair.        --Milton.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. To affect painfully with heat, or as with heat; to dry up
      with heat; to affect as by heat.
      [1913 Webster]

            Lashed by mad rage, and scorched by brutal fires.
                                                  --Prior.
      [1913 Webster]

   3. To burn; to destroy by, or as by, fire.
      [1913 Webster]

            Power was given unto him to scorch men with fire.
                                                  --Rev. xvi. 8.
      [1913 Webster]

            The fire that scorches me to death.   --Dryden.
      [1913 Webster]