Sear
[sɪə] or [sɪr]
Definition
(verb.) make very hot and dry; 'The heat scorched the countryside'.
Checker: Olivier--From WordNet
Definition
(a.) Alt. of Sere
(a.) To wither; to dry up.
(a.) To burn (the surface of) to dryness and hardness; to cauterize; to expose to a degree of heat such as changes the color or the hardness and texture of the surface; to scorch; to make callous; as, to sear the skin or flesh. Also used figuratively.
(n.) The catch in a gunlock by which the hammer is held cocked or half cocked.
Inputed by Jarvis
Synonyms and Synonymous
v. a. Cauterize, burn with a hot iron, burn with cautery.
a. Dry, withered.
Editor: Rochelle
Definition
n. the catch in a gun-lock by which it is held at cock or half-cock: a part of a gun-lock.—n. Sear′-spring a spring in a gun-lock.
v.t. to dry up: to burn to dryness on the surface: to scorch: to cauterise: to render callous or insensible.—adj. dry withered.—adj. Seared dried up: burned: hardened.—ns. Seared′ness hardness insensibility; Sear′ness dryness; Sear′wood wood dry enough to burn.
Typist: Robinson
Examples
- I can't wait to-day, said Will, inwardly seared by the possibility that Mr. Casaubon would enter. George Eliot. Middlemarch.
- His brain was hurt, seared, the tissue was as if destroyed. D. H. Lawrence. Women in Love .
- My seared vision! Charlotte Bronte. Jane Eyre.
- It is easy for me to be so, for every event of that dreadful time is seared into my memory. Arthur Conan Doyle. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.
- It was a dreadful hour--an hour from which she emerged shrinking and seared, as though her lids had been scorched by its actual glare. Edith Wharton. The House of Mirth.
- He felt his heart was seared, it would perish if this went on much longer. D. H. Lawrence. Women in Love .
Typist: Portia