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What is "singe"

Crossword clues for singe

singe
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
singe
verb
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ The flames were hot enough to singe your eyebrows.
▪ The heat was so intense that it singed our hair.
▪ The rug was singed by a piece of burning coal that had fallen from the fire.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Singe

Singe \Singe\, n. A burning of the surface; a slight burn.

Singe

Singe \Singe\ (s[i^]nj), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Singed (s[i^]njd); p. pr. & vb. n. Singeing (s[i^]nj"[i^]ng).] [OE. sengen, AS. sengan in besengan (akin to D. zengen, G. sengen), originally, to cause to sing, fr. AS. singan to sing, in allusion to the singing or hissing sound often produced when a substance is singed, or slightly burned. See Sing.]

  1. To burn slightly or superficially; to burn the surface of; to burn the ends or outside of; as, to singe the hair or the skin.

    You sulphurous and thought-executing fires, . . . Singe my white head!
    --Shak.

    I singed the toes of an ape through a burning glass.
    --L'Estrange.

    1. To remove the nap of (cloth), by passing it rapidly over a red-hot bar, or over a flame, preliminary to dyeing it.

    2. To remove the hair or down from (a plucked chicken or the like) by passing it over a flame.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
singe

Old English sengan "to burn lightly, burn the edges" (of hair, wings, etc.), from Proto-Germanic *sangjanan (cognates: Old Frisian of-sendza, Middle Dutch singhen, Dutch zengen, Old High German sengan, German sengen "to singe"). The root is said to be related to that of sing (v.), on the idea of some sort of sound produced by singeing (Century Dictionary), but Klein's sources reject this. Related: Singed; singeing. Singed cat "person whose appearance does not do him justice, person who is better than he looks" is from 1827.

Wiktionary
singe

n. A burning of the surface; a slight burn. vb. 1 (context transitive English) To burn slightly. 2 (context transitive English) To remove the nap of (cloth), by passing it rapidly over a red-hot bar, or over a flame, preliminary to dyeing it. 3 (context transitive English) To remove the hair or down from (a plucked chicken, etc.) by passing it over a flame.

WordNet
singe

n. a surface burn [syn: scorch]

singe

  1. v. burn superficially or lightly; "I singed my eyebrows" [syn: swinge]

  2. become superficially burned; "my eyebrows singed when I bent over the flames" [syn: scorch, sear]

Wikipedia
Singe

A singe is a slight scorching, burn or treatment with flame. This may be due to an accident, such as scorching one's hair when lighting a gas fire, or a deliberate method of treatment or removal of hair or other fibres.

Singe (Tanzanian ward)

Singe (Tanzanian ward) is an administrative ward in the Kongwa district of the Dodoma Region of Tanzania. According to the 2002 census, the ward has a total population of 8,243.

Usage examples of "singe".

Now Istria and I were both up, with the singed and bleeding wolf still, amazingly, on its feet and growling at both of us.

I remember their singed lawns and white-pillared porches, and the lone gas stations, the pumps like cylindrical one-armed robots, their glass tops like brimless bowler hats, and the cemeteries that looked as if no one else would ever be buried in them.

There were motives in it of fats, butyric acid, alcohols, mineral oils, heated rubber, and singed leather, to a broadly-handled accompaniment of charred feathers, lightened by suggestions of crisped flesh.

I saw his gaze flick to the side of my head where the plasmic near miss had slightly singed my hair.

Larkin kept telling him to go to hell out of a mouth that looked like a piece of singed stew meat.

A dirty, barefooted maid was sitting on a trunk, and, having undone her pale-colored plait, was pulling it straight and sniffing at her singed hair.

He smelled of vomit and singed hair and blistered flesh, and her stomach rolled and heaved.

Then Yount hastily scrambled out again, his own clothes smoldering here and there, his black beard singed and his face and hands blistered.

They left scorching tracks in the land, and Ijo the Scholar had his arm singed by one, though he was not badly hurt.

His hair was singed and the smell of burned and wet cloth was strong in his nostrils.

His hair was singed, his face was covered in mud and smut, and what she could see of it was scarlet.

Aylwin found that he had somehow cut his head, his clothes and hair were singed, and one sleeve of his best supertunic had vanished, leaving a ragged blackened edge just above his elbow.

The singed serpent was thown flat as Moonbird, wings freed, rose into the air, his shoulder still in the grip of his dangling adversary.

The powerful heat from the cannons had singed her hands and skin, raising a red welt on the left side of her face.

The mine, big with destructive power, burst upon me, and hurled me high in the air--I fell on heaps of smoking limbs, but was only singed.