Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Dried out from extreme heat.
  • adjective Roasted or dried.
  • adjective Very thirsty.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Dry.
  • adjective Thirsty.
  • verb Simple past tense and past participle of parch.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective dried out by heat or excessive exposure to sunlight
  • adjective toasted or roasted slightly

Etymologies

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Examples

  • Growing populations are straining supplies in parched areas of the U.S.

    High-Tech Cures for Water Shortages Michael Totty 2010

  • In fact, the startling abundance of fruit in parched Kandahar was what had first led me to consider beauty products.

    Scents & Sensibility 2007

  • In fact, the startling abundance of fruit in parched Kandahar was what had first led me to consider beauty products.

    Scents & Sensibility 2007

  • In fact, the startling abundance of fruit in parched Kandahar was what had first led me to consider beauty products.

    Scents & Sensibility 2007

  • There have been a few suggestions for using other words - yep, Gryphon, and Time Lord over on the Voyager board, I like the word parched too...hmm.

    More on Title Troubles Glenda Larke 2007

  • Catty, my liquidity may be best described as parched, or even dessicated.

    Cheeseburger Gothic » I dips me lid to Lord Bob of Nowhere. 2010

  • Accustomed on "hikes" to a thirst not surpassed by anything "east of Suez," I never before appreciated the significance of the word "parched" - the "tongue cleaving to the roof of the mouth."

    A Tramp Through the Bret Harte Country Thomas Dykes Beasley

  • Each time the word ice met her eye she recalled the parched lips that had moaned for it, the feverish hands that had clutched it so greedily when she brought it, and she thought if Sandford Berry could only see what she had done for some of the poor souls who "got on her nerves" he'd change his opinion about her efforts to help them being of no avail.

    Mary Ware's Promised Land John Goss 1897

  • "You've cheated me!" said Bai with a kind of parched hoarseness, as though her throat had been rubbed raw.

    Spirit Gate 2006

  • Coffee giv 'out an none could be bought so they took okra seeds an' parched 'em good an 'brown an' ground 'em an 'made coffee out'n' em.

    Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States From Interviews with Former Slaves Georgia Narratives, Part 2 Work Projects Administration

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