Parch

//pɑɹt͡ʃ// noun, verb, slang

noun, verb, slang ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The condition of being parched.

    "Yet here he is, not at the head, but somewhere toward the rear of the serpentine queue wending its way through all this parch […]."

Verb
  1. 1
    To burn the surface of, to scorch. transitive

    "The sun today could parch cement."

  2. 2
    cause to wither or parch from exposure to heat wordnet
  3. 3
    To roast, as dry grain. transitive

    "Ye shall eat neither bread, nor parched corn."

  4. 4
    To dry to extremity; to shrivel with heat. transitive

    "The patient’s mouth is parched from fever."

  5. 5
    To make very thirsty. colloquial, transitive

    "We're parched, hon. Could you send up an ale from the cooler?"

Show 2 more definitions
  1. 6
    To boil something slowly (Still used in Lancashire in parched peas, a type of mushy peas). archaic, transitive
  2. 7
    To become superficially burnt; to become sunburned. intransitive

    "The locals watched, amused, as the tourists parched in the sun, having neglected to apply sunscreen or bring water."

Synonyms

All synonyms
air-dryanhydrateattenuatebakebe in heatblaze

Antonyms

All antonyms
moist

Example

More examples

"The sun today could parch cement."

Etymology

From Middle English parchen, paarchen (“to parch; dry; roast”), of uncertain origin. Perhaps a variant of Middle English perchen (“to roast”).

Related phrases

mushy peas

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.