Crossword clues for scorch
scorch
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Scorch \Scorch\, v. i.
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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. -
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. 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.]
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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. -
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. -
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.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
"to burn superficially or slightly, but so as to change the color or injure the texture," early 14c., perhaps an alteration of scorrcnenn "make dry, parch" (c.1200), of obscure origin, perhaps from Old Norse skorpna "to be shriveled," cognate with Old English scrimman "to shrink, dry up." Or perhaps from Old French escorchier "to strip off the skin," from Vulgar Latin excorticare "to flay," from ex- (see ex-) + Latin cortex (genitive corticis) "cork;" but OED finds this not likely. Scorched earth military strategy is 1937, translation of Chinese jiaotu, used against the Japanese in a bid to stem their advance into China.
Wiktionary
n. 1 A slight or surface burn. 2 A discolouration caused by heat. 3 Brown discoloration on the leaves of plants caused by heat, lack of water or by fungi. vb. 1 (context transitive English) To burn the surface of something so as to discolour it 2 (context transitive English) To wither, parch or destroy something by heat or fire, especially to make land or buildings unusable to an enemy 3 (context intransitive English) To become scorched or singed 4 (context intransitive English) To move at high speed (so as to leave scorch marks on the ground) 5 To burn; to destroy by, or as by, fire.
WordNet
n. a surface burn [syn: singe]
a plant disease that produces a browning or scorched appearance of plant tissues
a discoloration caused by heat
v. make very hot and dry; "The heat scorched the countryside" [syn: sear]
become superficially burned; "my eyebrows singed when I bent over the flames" [syn: sear, singe]
destroy completely by or as if by fire; "The wildfire scorched the forest and several homes"; "the invaders scorched the land"
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]
become scorched or singed under intense heat or dry conditions; "The exposed tree scorched in the hot sun"
Wikipedia
Scorch may refer to:
Scorch is a character appearing in DC Comics.
Scorch is a 1992 television sitcom that aired on CBS, and was canceled after three episodes were broadcast.
The title character, a miniature dragon, is a puppet that was used by ventriloquist Ronn Lucas before the series came to be; although Lucas never actually appeared in the series, he did supply Scorch's voice.
Usage examples of "scorch".
But they took her aboard, drenching her with stinging antiseptics, scorching her skin with bactericidal ultraviolet rays.
August 1 a line of scorched and smoking ruins replaced the lately-occupied huts, and along the Foyle went a long column of pikes and standards, marking the retreat of the besieging army.
Darcy watched a forlorn family prise open a badly contorted marsupium shell with deep scorch marks on the oyster-coloured casing.
The buildings lining the street were scorched and half-destroyed from the desperate magic that wizards had flung into battle without regard to misfires or precision.
I unlocked the door on a delirious Folly and an awful muttony smell of scorched lamb.
Earl Jieret insisted, then swore a fierce oath as his jab to turn the coals beneath the pannikin shot up sparks that scorched a new hole in his buckskins.
The white-painted lettering on the pentaprism was totally gone, the black magnesium body was scorched and buckled, and the lens cracked completely through.
The ceiling, scorched and blackened though it was, still showed traces of elaborate plasterwork not to be matched even by the ornate ceilings down below, and the fireplace was a masterpiece of variously patterned marbles, ugly in its grandeur, but impressively conceived and executed.
Sedgwick had no talent for prevarication, when it came to kissing, his skills scorched.
And if a pointy-bearded Director of Photography got grazed across the ankle, if a towel-boy or a makeup-girl lost a finger or two, if Charity Divine had her hairstyle scorched or Schlong Gielgud stopped one in the rump who cared?
It was every shade of gray, from scorched earth to beaten stone, and nothing lived in it for as far as the eye could see.
The flames they had called up had not injured them, but now the heat radiating back from the scorched valley walls was almost overpowering.
But as soon as Owen moved forward, the scorched sides just closed together again, like a slow-moving man trap.
It was mostly bones, scorched and blackened by the terrible energies of the disrupter beam, but somehow still held together by strands of bloody meat.
No matter their differences, no matter the distrust between them, her want of him scorched her to the core.