scorch

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• intransitive verb To burn superficially so as to discolor or damage the texture of. synonym: burn.
• intransitive verb To dry out or wither with intense heat.
• intransitive verb To destroy (land and buildings) by fire or military action so as to leave nothing salvageable to an enemy army.
• intransitive verb To subject to severe censure; excoriate.
• intransitive verb To become scorched or singed.
• intransitive verb To go or move at a very fast, often excessively fast rate.
• noun A slight or surface burn.
• noun Brown spotting on plant leaves caused by pathogens, heat, or lack of water.

from The Century Dictionary.

• To ride very fast on a bicycle or in a motor-car.
• To burn superficially; subject to a degree of heat that changes the color, or both the color and the texture, of the surface; parch or shrivel up the surface of by heat; singe.
• To burn or consume, as by the direct application of fire.
• To give the sensation of burning; affect with a sensation or an effect similar to that produced by burning; figuratively, to attack with caustic invective or sarcasm.
• Synonyms Scorch, Singe, Sear, Char. Parch. To scorch is to burn superficially or slightly, but so as to change the color or injure the texture; sometimes, from the common effect of heat, the word suggests shriveling or curling, but not generally. Singe is one degree more external than scorch; we speak of singeing the hair and scorching the skin; a fowl is singed to remove the hairs after plucking out the feathers. Sear has primary reference to drying, but more commonly to hardening, by heat, as by cauterization; hence its figurative use, as when we speak of seared sensibilities, a seared conscience, heat not being thought of as a part of the figure. To char is to reduce to carbon or a black cinder, especially on the surface: when a timber is charred it is burned black on the outside and to an uncertain depth. Parch has a possible meaning of burning superficially or roasting, as in parched corn or peanuts, but almost always refers to drying or shriveling.
• To be burned on the surface; become parched or dried up.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• intransitive verb To be burnt on the surface; to be parched; to be dried up.
• intransitive verb To burn or be burnt.
• intransitive verb To ride or drive at great, usually at excessive, speed; -- applied chiefly to automobilists and bicyclists. [Colloq.]
• transitive verb To burn superficially; to parch, or shrivel, the surface of, by heat; to subject to so much heat as changes color and texture without consuming.
• transitive verb To affect painfully with heat, or as with heat; to dry up with heat; to affect as by heat.
• transitive verb To burn; to destroy by, or as by, fire.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• noun A slight or surface burn.
• noun A discolouration caused by heat.
• noun Brown discoloration on the leaves of plants caused by heat, lack of water or by fungi.
• verb transitive To burn the surface of something so as to discolour it
• verb transitive To wither, parch or destroy something by heat or fire, especially to make land or buildings unusable to an enemy
• verb intransitive To become scorched or singed
• verb intransitive To move at high speed (so as to leave scorch marks on the ground)

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• verb burn slightly and superficially so as to affect color
• noun a surface burn
• verb destroy completely by or as if by fire
• verb make very hot and dry
• noun a discoloration caused by heat
• verb become scorched or singed under intense heat or dry conditions
• verb become superficially burned
• noun a plant disease that produces a browning or scorched appearance of plant tissues