parch

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

• (General American) IPA^(key): /pɑɹt͡ʃ/

• Audio (US)

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• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /pɑːtʃ/

  Rhymes: -ɑː(ɹ)tʃ

parch (third-person singular simple present parches, present participle parching, simple past and past participle parched)

1. (transitive) To burn the surface of, to scorch.

   The sun today could parch cement.

2. (transitive) To roast, as dry grain.
   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], OCLC 964384981, Leviticus 23:14:

     Ye shall eat neither bread, nor parched corn.

3. (transitive) To dry to extremity; to shrivel with heat.
   • 1853, Cotton Mather, Magnalia Christi Americana, page 348:

     They would go over board with a rope fastned about them, that by drenching themselves a while in the sea, they might ease the internal heat which parched them; and when they stood any of them to steer the vessel, they would have their feet in a pail of sea water to refrigerate 'em.

   • 1857, Samuel Griswold Goodrich, A History of All Nations, page 101:

     The last day's march was very painful, for the north wind, blowing full in their faces, parched and benumbed the men.

   The patient's mouth is parched from fever.

4. (transitive, colloquial) To make very thirsty.
   • 1828, George Croly, Salathiel: A Story of the Past, the Present, and the Future, page 65:

     In my haste I stumbled , and fell over one of the wounded; he groaned, and prayed me for a cup of water to cool the thirst that parched him.

   • 1870 February 1, ‎Charles Haddon Spurgeon, “The Eagle and the Hen”, in The Sword and the Trowel, page 52:

     Serpents bit them, thirst parched them, Amalekites assailed them.

   • 1882, William Dean Howells, A Woman's Reason, page 245:

     They had no water on the wreck, and a consuming thirst parched them.

   • 1919, David Anderson, The Blue Moon: A Tale of the Flatwoods, page 245:

     Whether it was the cup he drank from, or the thirst that parched him, he took no thought, but it was the sweetest drink that ever passed his lips.

   • 1996, Xosé Luis Méndez Ferrín, Them and Other Stories, page 159:

     That there had been certain couplings was only because in opening up tunnels of betrayal and shadows in forbidden bodies and imaginations, they were quenching the thirst for Artur that parched them all, that they all professed in limitless ardour.

   • 2011, James Ellroy, The Cold Six Thousand, page 399:

     Pete sipped RC. Bennies parched him bad.

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

5. (transitive, archaic) To boil something slowly (Still used in Lancashire in parched peas, a type of mushy peas).
6. (intransitive) To become superficially burnt; be become sunburned.

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

parch (plural parches)

1. The condition of being parched.
   • 1982, TC Boyle, Water Music, Penguin 2006, p. 64:

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

Inherited from Proto-Slavic *pь̑rxъ.

• IPA^(key): /parx/

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -arx
• Syllabification: parch

parch m inan

1. dermatophytosis

   Synonyms: grzybica woszczynowa, strupień woszczynowy

2. scab (fungal disease of plants and the lesions it causes)

parch m pers

1. (dated, derogatory, ethnic slur) kike

• parch in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• parch in Polish dictionaries at PWN
• Słownik etymologiczny języka polskiego/parch on the Polish Wikisource.Wikisource ^pl

Back-formation from parchu (“to respect”).

• IPA^(key): /parχ/

parch m (usually uncountable, plural parchau or peirch)

1. respect
2. reverence, veneration

• parchus (“respectable; respectful”)