Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun The act or process of burning superficially.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- verb Present participle of
singe .
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
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Examples
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Bucking a seven-knot current, the Pyrenees a mass of flame and smoke, McCoy, his whiskers singeing from the flames, at last finds an anchorage, pilots the vessel into a lagoon and onto a bed of white sand as the sails and masts burn and the men scramble for the boats.
“Day had broken cold and gray, exceedingly cold and gray, . . . .” 2008
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The toil, the suffering, the monotonous food, the lack of fire, he did not dwell upon, but singeing, that is to say burning down through the eternally frozen ground, was to begin at once.
The Trail of the Goldseekers A Record of Travel in Prose and Verse Hamlin Garland 1900
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Lit it with an unsteady hand, singeing his fingers on the candle flame.
Earl of Durkness Alix Rickloff 2011
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He located the Bic and flicked - it angrily sprung into life, shooting the flame past the tip of his nose and into his hair that hung in greasy strips over his forehead singeing the hair ssshht.
The Sanchez Ghost 2009
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Placing a hand over the burning flame, getting warm, then hot, singeing with a pain almost too great to bear before finally pulling away, but then going back for more.
Playing with Fire Deb Close 2011
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He located the Bic and flicked - it angrily sprung into life, shooting the flame past the tip of his nose and into his hair that hung in greasy strips over his forehead singeing the hair ssshht.
The Sanchez Ghost 2009
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People often ask me whether I believe that cutting the hair and singeing the ends with a lighted taper is beneficial for the growth.
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I stuck the match under the pot and the gas exploded, flames licking the back of my hand, singeing the hairs and emitting a sour smell.
Sam In Paradise Alex Austin 2011
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The sage is subtle, overshadowed by the roast and hops; the hot peppers reach a crescendo way back in the throat, singeing the uvula.
Beer: Stone's tap takeover Greg Kitsock 2010
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Lit it with an unsteady hand, singeing his fingers on the candle flame.
Earl of Durkness Alix Rickloff 2011
Wordplayer commented on the word singeing
It has occurred to me that, if this followed common English rules, then the word would be singing...
June 21, 2011
milosrdenstvi commented on the word singeing
As by analogy cringing, tinging, binging and whinging. I suppose the deviance serves to avoid ambiguity, but I wonder how the practice came to be such. Most other words ending in eing seem to be of the classes -ieing, -eeing, or rarely -oeing, or less common variants of accepted spellings -- also eyeing and dyeing (dying, incidentally, is quite an odd reversal of the typical y - i substitution). I do think I've seen bingeing in places, however; somehow my certainty of judgment (judgement??) fails me on that one.
The one exception seems to be ageing, which is a British usage, the American being aging.
June 24, 2011