sear

• sere
• sare

• (US) IPA^(key): /siːɹ/
• (UK) IPA^(key): /sɪə(ɹ)/
• Rhymes: -ɪə(ɹ)

From Middle English sere, seer, seere, from Old English sēar, sīere (“dry, sere, sear, withered, barren”), 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”), Homeric Ancient Greek αὖος (aûos, “dry”).

sear (comparative searer or more sear, superlative searest or most sear)

1. Dry; withered, especially of vegetation.

From Middle English seren, seeren, from Old English sēarian (“to become sere, to grow sear, wither, pine away”), from Proto-Germanic *sauzōną, *sauzijaną (“to become dry”). Related to Old High German sōrēn (“to wither, wilt”). See Etymology 1 for more cognates. The use in firearms terminology may relate to French serrer (“to grip”).

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.
2. To wither; to dry up.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Shakespeare to this entry?)

3. (transitive, figuratively) To make callous or insensible.
4. (transitive, figuratively) To mark permanently, as if by burning.

   The events of that day were seared into her memory.

sear (plural sears)

1. A scar produced by searing
2. Part of a gun that retards the hammer until the trigger is pulled.

• AREs, ARSE, Ares, EARs, ERAs, Ersa, SERA, ares, arse, ears, eras, rase, reas, sare, sera

sear

1. eastern, east

• an ear

• siar

sear

1. painful

• “sear (I)”, in Wurdboek fan de Fryske taal (in Dutch), 2011