Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This

American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

scorch       (skôrch)  Pronunciation Key  v.   scorched, scorch·ing, scorch·es v.   tr. To burn superficially so as to discolor or damage the texture of. See Synonyms at burn1. To wither or parch with intense heat. To destroy (land and buildings) by or as if by fire so as to leave nothing salvageable to an enemy army. To subject to severe censure; excoriate. v.   intr. To become scorched or singed. To go or move at a very fast, often excessively fast rate. n.   A slight or surface burn. A discoloration caused by heat. Brown spotting on plant leaves caused by fungi, heat, or lack of water. [Middle English scorchen, possibly of Scandinavian origin; akin to Old Norse skorpna, to shrink, be shriveled.] scorch'ing·ly adv.

WordNet - Cite This Source - Share This

scorching
adjective
1.	hot and dry enough to burn or parch a surface; "scorching heat"
adverb
1.	capable of causing burns; "it was scorching hot"

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Scorching

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.