sear
/siə/
Học thuậtThân thiện
Definition
Verb (transitive):
- To burn or scorch the surface of something: To cause superficial burning that discolors or damages the outer layer.
- To wither or dry out: To cause something, especially vegetation, to become dry, shriveled, or withered, often through exposure to heat.
- To brand or mark with a hot instrument: To burn a mark onto a surface.
- To make callous or unfeeling: To harden emotionally or morally.
Adjective:
- Dried up, withered: Describes something, particularly plants, that has lost all moisture and is dry and shriveled.
Usage Examples
Verb:
- The chef will sear the steak to lock in the juices. (This shows the cooking application of superficial burning.)
- The intense summer heat can sear the grass, turning it brown. (This illustrates causing vegetation to wither.)
- The tragic event seared the memory into her mind. (This demonstrates a figurative use for making a lasting, painful impression.)
Adjective:
- They hiked through a landscape of sear vegetation. (This describes dry, withered plants.)
Advanced Usage
"To sear something into memory/consciousness": To fix something, typically a traumatic or powerful image/experience, indelibly in one's mind.
- The photograph of the disaster was seared into the public's consciousness.
Culinary Technique: In cooking, "to sear" specifically means to brown the surface of food quickly at a high temperature to develop flavor.
- For the best flavor, sear the meat before slow-cooking it.
Variants and Related Words
- Sere (Adjective): An alternative spelling for the adjective form, meaning dry or withered. It is more common in literary or ecological contexts (e.g., "sere vegetation").
- Searing (Adjective): Extremely hot or intense; emotionally painful.
- The searing heat of the desert.
- He felt searing regret.
Synonyms
- Verb (to burn): Scorch, singe, char, blacken.
- Verb (to dry): Parch, wither, shrivel, desiccate.
- Adjective: Withered, parched, desiccated, arid.
Related Phrasal Verbs/Constructions
- Sear off: This is sometimes used in technical or cooking contexts to mean to seal or burn the surface completely.
- Sear off the cut ends of the rope to prevent fraying.
Related Idioms
- The sear and yellow leaf: A literary idiom from Shakespeare (), symbolizing old age and decay.
- He was in the sear and yellow leaf of his life.
Adjective
- (used especially of vegetation) having lost all moisture
- dried-up grass
- the desert was edged with sere vegetation
- shriveled leaves on the unwatered seedlings
- withered vines
Verb
- cause to wither or parch from exposure to heat
- The sun parched the earth
- burn slightly and superficially so as to affect color
- The cook blackened the chicken breast
- The fire charred the ceiling above the mantelpiece
- the flames scorched the ceiling
- become superficially burned
- my eyebrows singed when I bent over the flames
- make very hot and dry
- The heat scorched the countryside