Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To make extremely dry, especially by exposure to heat: synonym: dry.
  • intransitive verb To dry or roast (corn, for example) by exposing to heat.
  • intransitive verb To become very dry.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To expose to the strong action of fire, but without burning; roast (vegetable produce especially) partially by rapid expulsion of moisture.
  • To dry up; dry to extremity or to the point of burning: as, the sun's rays parch the ground; parched with thirst.
  • Synonyms Singe, Sear, etc. See scorch.
  • To become very dry; be scorched.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • intransitive verb To become scorched or superficially burnt; to be very dry.
  • transitive verb To burn the surface of; to scorch; to roast over the fire, as dry grain
  • transitive verb To dry to extremity; to shrivel with heat.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb transitive To burn the surface of, to scorch.
  • verb transitive To roast, as dry grain.
  • verb transitive To dry to extremity; to shrivel with heat.
  • verb transitive, colloquial To become thirsty.
  • verb transitive, archaic To boil something slowly (Still used in Lancashire in parched peas, a type of mushy peas).
  • verb intransitive To become superficially burnt; be become sunburned.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb cause to wither or parch from exposure to heat

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English parchen.]

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Examples

  • They parch it in large batches with that of other tribal members and create markets where it can fetch a far price.

    Kurt Michael Friese: Truly Wild Wild Rice Kurt Michael Friese 2010

  • For a product that takes days and days of hard physical labor to harvest and parch, such a price was completely debilitating.

    Kurt Michael Friese: Truly Wild Wild Rice Kurt Michael Friese 2010

  • A bigger rise of 3-4C — the smallest increase we can prudently expect to follow inaction — would parch continents, turning farmland into desert.

    Archive 2009-12-01 2009

  • But ever -- and here the torment lay -- she was drawn back from these far-wanderings to her present trouble, with its parch in the throat, its ache in the breast, and its gnawing, vacant goneness.

    CHAPTER XIV 2010

  • A bigger rise of 3-4C — the smallest increase we can prudently expect to follow inaction — would parch continents, turning farmland into desert.

    'Fourteen days to seal history's judgment on this generation' 2009

  • Such a shortage would parch Nevada, Arizona and California with severe water-use restrictions.

    Wet Winter Can't Slake West's Thirst Jim Carlton 2011

  • Before I made it back to my vehicle he called me back to his parch and wrote me permission.

    I need some advice. I live in Central FL and everyone hunts! 2009

  • What he saw reflected there was the exact likeness of one of the pretas, the restive spirits doomed to parch and starve because of their attachments to past lives, his hair white as death and flung out to every point of the compass, his limbs like sticks, his face seared like a hot dog left too long on the grill.

    The Silence 2010

  • Before I made it back to my vehicle he called me back to his parch and wrote me permission.

    I need some advice. I live in Central FL and everyone hunts! 2009

  • What he saw reflected there was the exact likeness of one of the pretas, the restive spirits doomed to parch and starve because of their attachments to past lives, his hair white as death and flung out to every point of the compass, his limbs like sticks, his face seared like a hot dog left too long on the grill.

    The Silence 2010

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