Hello, you have come here looking for the meaning of the word
parching. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
parching, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
parching in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
parching you have here. The definition of the word
parching will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition of
parching, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.
English
Etymology
From parch + -ing.
Adjective
parching (comparative more parching, superlative most parching)
- Causing something or someone to parch; extremely drying.
a. 1749 (date written), James Thomson, “Summer”, in The Seasons, London: A Millar, and sold by Thomas Cadell, , published 1768, →OCLC:Who can unpitying see the flowery race, / Shed by the morn, their new-flush'd bloom resign, / Before the parching beam?
1892, James Yoxall, chapter 5, in The Lonely Pyramid:The desert storm was riding in its strength; the travellers lay beneath the mastery of the fell simoom. […] Drifts of yellow vapour, fiery, parching, stinging, filled the air.
1888, J. F. C. Hecker, “Causes.-Spread.”, in B. G. Babington, transl., The Black Death and the Dancing Mania, →OCLC, page 24:The series of these great events began in the year 1333, fifteen years before the plague broke out in Europe: they first appeared in China. Here a parching drought, accompanied by famine, commenced in the tract of country watered by the rivers Kiang and Hoai.
, J[ohn] Meade Falkner, Moonfleet, London; Toronto, Ont.: Jonathan Cape, published 1934, →OCLC:I began also to feel very hungry, as not having eaten for twenty-four hours; and worse than that, there was a parching thirst and dryness in my throat, and nothing with which to quench it.
- For more quotations using this term, see Citations:parching.
- Very thirsty; parched.
Verb
parching
- present participle and gerund of parch
Noun
parching (plural parchings)
- The process of parching or roasting something, such as corn.
1917, Studies in the Social Sciences, number 9, page 20:I have already told how we parched sunflower seed; and that I used two or three double-handfuls of seed to a parching. I used two parchings of sunflower seed for one mess of four-vegetables-mixed.
- The condition of being parched; absolute dryness.
1797, Icelandic Poetry: Or The Edda of Sæmund, page 95:Squalid youths with ghastly grin,
In hollow bitter roots shall bring,
Urine of the unsav'ry goat,
To quell the parchings of thy throat.