sears

Verb

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

1. (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.
2. 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
3. (figuratively, transitive) To make callous or insensible.
4. (figuratively, transitive) To mark permanently, as if by burning.
   • The events of that day were seared into her memory.

See all 8 meanings of sear