sear

UK/sɪə̯(ɹ)/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

British/sɪː(ɹ)/

sear adjective: dry; withered, especially of vegetation.

Adjective

sear (comparative searer or more sear, superlative searest or most sear)

Dry; withered, especially of vegetation.
- There are in all but three vvayes of going thither [to the moon]. […] [The] third, Old Empedocles vvay; vvho vvhen he leaped into Ætna, having a drie ſeare bodie, and light, the ſmoake took him and vvhift him up into the Moone, vvhere he lives yet vvaving up and dovvne like a feather, all foot and...1620 January 17 (first performance; Gregorian calendar), Benjamin Jonson [i.e., Ben Jonson], “Newes from the New World Discover’d in the Moon. A Masque, […]”, in The Workes of Benjamin Jonson. The...
- The autumn winds rushing / Waft the leaves that are searest, / But our flower was in flushing, / When blighting was nearest.1810, Walter Scott, “Canto III. The Gathering.”, in The Lady of the Lake; […], Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for John Ballantyne and Co.; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, and...

Verb

sear (third-person singular simple present sears, present participle searing, simple past and past participle seared)

(transitive) To char, scorch, or burn the surface of (something) with a hot instrument.
- He likes to sear his steaks while maintaining rareness at the center.
- I will sear the skin from your flesh. You will die a thousand deaths!2001, Ben Stivers, Wrath of Magic, page 123
To wither; to dry up.
- The drought was so severe as to sear the grass and the leaves of maple trees which had grown well for two years, standing in sward land by the roadside, and yet the corn, within ten feet, on the subsoiled land, did not roll once in the whole season, even at mid-day, and there was scarcely another...1852 May, Henry F. French, “Some Remarks on Subsoil Plowing”, in The New England Farmer, volume 4, number 5, page 231
- The spring and summer of 1936 brought to the Great Plains one of those terrible periodic droughts that sear the crops and convert the “short-grass country” into a desert.1971, Chapters From the American Experience, page 277
(figuratively, transitive) To make callous or insensible.
(figuratively, transitive) To mark permanently, as if by burning.
- The events of that day were seared into her memory.

Noun (1)

sear (plural sears)

A scar produced by searing

Noun (2)

sear (plural sears)

Part of a gun that retards the hammer until the trigger is pulled.

Proper noun capitalized: Sear

Sear (plural Sears)

A surname.

sear meaning in Hindi, Urdu, Malayalam and Kannada

sear in Hindi

to sear, brand, cauterise: दाग़ना dāġnā

sear in Malayalam

burn, scorch, singe: പൊള്ളിക്കുക, പൊള്ളലേല്പിക്കുക, കരിക്കുക, കത്തിക്കുക, ചുട്ടെരിക്കുക, അഗ്നിക്കിരയാക്കുക
flashy-fry, seal, brown: വാട്ടുക, വഴറ്റുക, ചൂടാക്കുക, പൊരിക്കുക, മൊരിക്കുക
wound, hurt, pain: വ്രണപ്പെടുത്തുക, മനസ്സ് നോവിക്കുക, മുറിപ്പെടുത്തുക, വേദനിപ്പിക്കുക, ദുരിതപ്പെടുത്തുക, നൊമ്പരപ്പെടുത്തുക

sear in Kannada

ಬತ್ತಿಸು, ಬಾಡಿಸು, ಒಣಗಿಸು, ಬಾಡು, ಕರಟು, ಮರೆಯದಿರು

More languagesFewer languages

sear in Arabic: لَفَحَ lafaḥa

Examples of sear in a sentence

When you drop the tuna onto the pan, the outside will sear and cook quickly while leaving as much of the center as possible in its raw state.2010, Jeff Potter, Cooking for Geeks: Real Science, Great Hacks, and Good Food, page 180:
I often will sear steaks, move them to a cooler side, then use the hot side to grill or sauté vegetables, make a sauce in a cast-iron skillet, or grill some fruit for dessert while the steak finishes.2016, Melissa Cookston, Smokin' Hot in the South, page 12:
The early morning sun had begun to sear the grass.2014, Bernard N. Lee, Jr.; Michele Barand, A Look Back in Time, page 50:
She might just as easily have been a goddess of the harvest, since the ancient Greeks sowed in the fall and reaped in the spring before the dry heat of summer could sear the crops in the fields.2018, Michael Furie, Peg Aloi, JD Hortwort, Llewellyn's 2019 Sabbats Almanac:

All 23 example sentences with sear

Forms of sear

Adjective
comparative	searer
comparative	more sear
superlative	searest
superlative	most sear
alternative form	sere
alternative form	sare
Verb
third-person singular present	sears
present participle	searing
past participle	seared
past	seared
Noun
plural	sears
Proper noun
plural	Sears

Past tense of sear: seared

Plural of sear: sears

Origin of sear

From Middle English sere, seer, seere, from Old English sēar, sīere (“dry, sere, sear, withered, barren”), from Proto-West Germanic *sauʀ(ī), from Proto-Germanic *sauzaz (“dry”), from Proto-Indo-European *sh₂ews- (“dry, parched”) (also reconstructed as *h₂sews-). Cognate with Dutch zoor (“dry, rough”), Low German soor (“dry”), German sohr (“parched, dried up”), dialectal Norwegian søyr (“the desiccation and death of a tree”), Lithuanian saũsas (“dry”), Ukrainian сухий (suxyj, “dry”), Polish suchy (“dry”), Homeric Ancient Greek αὖος (aûos, “dry”). Doublet of sere and sare.

From Middle English seren, seeren, from Old English sēarian (“to become sere, to grow sear, wither, pine away”), from Proto-West Germanic *sauʀēn (“to dry out, become dry”); compare also Proto-Germanic *sauzijaną (“to make dry”). Related to Old High German sōrēn (“to wither, wilt”). See Etymology 1 for more cognates. The use in firearms terminology may relate to French serrer (“to grip”).

Possibly from Old French serre (“claw, talon, grasp”)

Words formed from sear

Words that rhyme with sear

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about sear

What does sear mean?: Sear means dry; withered, especially of vegetation.
What is sear in Hindi?: Sear in Hindi is दाग़ना (dāġnā). See Sear meaning in Hindi.
How do you use sear in a sentence?: When you drop the tuna onto the pan, the outside will sear and cook quickly while leaving as much of the center as possible in its raw state.
What part of speech is sear?: Sear can be an adjective, a verb, a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce sear?: Sear is pronounced /sɪə̯(ɹ)/ (UK).

Words near sear in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: sear (page history and authors); Sear (page history and authors); दाग़ना (Hindi) (page history and authors); sear (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); sear (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); sear (Kannada Wiktionary) (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

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-I learned some phrases-sear.wav.

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