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.
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.
Scorch \Scorch\, v. i. 1. 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.
2. 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.
3. To ride or drive at great, usually at excessive, speed; -- applied chiefly to automobilists and bicyclists. [Colloq.] -- {Scorch"er}, n. [Colloq.]
"God will curse and scorch with hellfire the pale faces which harbor evil for the nation.
They contended the most probable cause of the image was a heat and light scorch from some "extraordinary phenomenon" not part of natural processes.
The plane passed the test of whether the missile would scorch the fuselage or affect the jet's handling, Lockheed spokesman Richard Stadler said Tuesday.
We need only to remember Saddam Hussein's threat "to scorch half of Israel" with chemical weapons to understand the danger.
Record-breaking heat continued to scorch states in the upper Ohio Valley and the Great Lakes Thursday, while thunderstorms flooded parts of western Kansas, the Oklahoma Panhandle and the northern Texas Panhandle.
No damage was caused to the store's interior and only a small scorch was visible on the exterior.
Clear skies prevailed across much of the nation today, and the southern Plains braced for another day of record temperatures that are likely to scorch the region through Labor Day.