1.
[syn: adust, baked, parched, scorched, sunbaked]
2. having everything destroyed so nothing is left salvageable by an enemy;
- Example: "Sherman's scorched earth policy"
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
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.
[1913 Webster]
Summer drouth or sing[`e]d air
Never scorch thy tresses fair. --Milton.
[1913 Webster]
2. To affect painfully with heat, or as with heat; to dry up
with heat; to affect as by heat.
[1913 Webster]
Lashed by mad rage, and scorched by brutal fires.
--Prior.
[1913 Webster]
3. To burn; to destroy by, or as by, fire.
[1913 Webster]
Power was given unto him to scorch men with fire.
--Rev. xvi. 8.
[1913 Webster]
The fire that scorches me to death. --Dryden.
[1913 Webster]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):
scorched
adj 1: dried out by heat or excessive exposure to sunlight; "a
vast desert all adust"; "land lying baked in the heat";
"parched soil"; "the earth was scorched and bare";
"sunbaked salt flats" [syn: adust, baked, parched,
scorched, sunbaked]
2: having everything destroyed so nothing is left salvageable by
an enemy; "Sherman's scorched earth policy"
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:
75 Moby Thesaurus words for "scorched":
adust, aggravated, ashen, ashy, baked, blistered, broken, burned,
burnt, burnt-up, burst, busted, checked, chipped, consumed,
consumed by fire, corky, cracked, crazed, cut, damaged, dehydrated,
desiccated, deteriorated, dried, dried-up, embittered, evaporated,
exacerbated, exsiccated, gutted, harmed, hurt, impaired, imperfect,
in bits, in pieces, in shards, incinerated, injured, irritated,
lacerated, mangled, mummified, mutilated, parched, pyrographic,
pyrolyzed, rent, ruptured, scalded, sear, seared, sere, shattered,
shriveled, singed, slashed, slit, smashed, split, sprung,
sun-dried, sunbaked, sunburned, the worse for, torn, weakened,
weazened, wind-dried, withered, wizened, worse, worse off,
worsened