parching

parching adjective: causing something or someone to parch; extremely drying. Also the present participle and gerund of parch.

Adjective

parching (comparative more parching, superlative most parching)

Causing something or someone to parch; extremely drying.
- Who can unpitying see the flowery race, / Shed by the morn, their new-flush'd bloom resign, / Before the parching beam?a. 1749 (date written), James Thomson, “Summer”, in The Seasons, London: […] A[ndrew] Millar, and sold by Thomas Cadell, […], published 1768, →OCLC
- 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.1892, James Yoxall, chapter 5, in The Lonely Pyramid
Very thirsty; parched.
- Proceed to nearest canteen and there annex liquor stores. March! Tramp, tramp, tramp the boys are […] parching.1922 February 2, James Joyce, Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company […], →OCLC

parching (plural parchings)

The process of parching or roasting something, such as corn.
- 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.1917, Studies in the Social Sciences, number 9, page 20
The condition of being parched; absolute dryness.
- Squalid youths with ghastly grin,
  In hollow bitter roots shall bring,
  Urine of the unsav'ry goat,
  To quell the parchings of thy throat.1797, Icelandic Poetry: Or The Edda of Sæmund, page 95

parching is also the present participle and gerund of parch.

Here a parching drought, accompanied by famine, commenced in the tract of country watered by the rivers Kiang and Hoai.1888, J. F. C. Hecker, “Causes.-Spread.”, in B. G. Babington, transl., The Black Death and the Dancing Mania, →OCLC, page 24:
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.[1898], J[ohn] Meade Falkner, Moonfleet, London; Toronto, Ont.: Jonathan Cape, published 1934, →OCLC:

From parch + -ing.

What does parching mean?: Parching means causing something or someone to parch; extremely drying.
How do you use parching in a sentence?: Here a parching drought, accompanied by famine, commenced in the tract of country watered by the rivers Kiang and Hoai.
What part of speech is parching?: Parching can be an adjective or a noun.

Adapted from Wiktionary: parching (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Cite this entry: “parching.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/parching. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.