To parch means to make something extremely dry, especially through intense heat. When the summer sun parches the ground, it bakes the soil until it cracks and turns dusty. A long drought can parch farmland, leaving crops withered and brown.

The word often describes what happens to your mouth and throat when you haven't had water for a long time. After running around outside on a hot day, you might feel parched, with your tongue dry and sticky, desperately wanting a cold drink. That uncomfortable, dried-out feeling is what parch describes.

You can also parch certain foods on purpose. Roasting corn kernels until they're crispy and dry produces parched corn, a crunchy snack people have made for thousands of years. Coffee beans are sometimes parched (heated at high temperatures) to bring out their flavor.

The word captures a specific kind of dryness that comes from heat or lack of moisture: the bone-dry, thirsty, cracked dryness of desert sand or a hiker's throat after climbing a mountain without enough water.