scorch

Meanings

Noun

• A slight or surface burn.
• A discolouration caused by heat.
• Brown discoloration on the leaves of plants caused by heat, lack of water or by fungi.

Verb

• To burn the surface of something so as to discolour it
• To wither, parch or destroy something by heat or fire, especially to make land or buildings unusable to an enemy
• (To cause) to become scorched or singed
• To move at high speed (so as to leave scorch marks on the ground, physically or figuratively).
• To burn; to destroy by, or as by, fire.
• To attack with bitter sarcasm or virulence.
• To ride a bicycle furiously on a public highway.

Related

Similar words

• singe

Origin

• From Middle English scorchen, scorcnen, perhaps an alteration of earlier *scorpnen, from Old Norse skorpna ("to shrivel up").