sear

Meanings

1. Dry; withered, especially of vegetation.

1. To char, scorch, or burn the surface of (something) with a hot instrument.
2. To wither; to dry up.
3. To make callous or insensible.
4. To mark permanently, as if by burning.

1. A scar produced by searing

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

1. A surname.

Etymology

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.