parched
AdjectiveUS[pahrcht]/pɑrtʃt/1 syllable
Open English WordNet
Adjective (2)
- 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”Synonyms: adustbakedscorchedsunbakedOpposite wetSimilar dry
- toasted or roasted slightly“parched corn was a staple of the Indian diet”Opposite rawSimilar cooked
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Webster's Dictionary (1913)
“parched” is listed under Parch.
Parch (pärch), transitive verb [past tense & past participle Parched; present participle & verbal noun Parching.]
Origin: OE. perchen to pierce, hence used of a piercing heat or cold, OF. perchier, another form of percier, F. percer. See Pierce.
1. To burn the surface of; to scorch; to roast over the fire, as dry grain; as, to parch the skin; to parch corn.
Ye shall eat neither bread, nor parched corn.— Lev. xxiii. 14.
2. To dry to extremity; to shrivel with heat; as, the mouth is parched from fever.
The ground below is parched.— John Dryden
Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913), from GCIDE 0.54