singe
/sɪnd͡ʒ/ verb, noun
Forms singes singeing singed singing sange sunge
- verb (transitive) To burn slightly.
- verb (transitive) To remove the nap of (cloth), by passing it rapidly over a red-hot bar, or over a flame, preliminary to dyeing it.
- verb (transitive) To remove the hair or down from (a plucked chicken, etc.) by passing it over a flame.
- noun A burning of the surface; a slight burn.
Synonyms
Etymology
From Middle English sengen, from Old English senġan, sænċġan (“to singe, burn slightly, scorch, afflict”), from Proto-West Germanic *sangijan (“to burn, torch”), from Proto-Indo-European *senk- (“to burn”). Cognate with West Frisian singe, sinzje (“to singe”), Saterland Frisian soange (“to singe”), Dutch zengen (“to singe, scorch”), German Low German sengen (“to singe”), German sengen (“to singe, scorch”), Icelandic sangur (“singed, burnt, scorched”).
Webster’s 1913
- verb To burn slightly or superficially; to burn the surface of; to burn the ends or outside of; as, to singe the hair or the skin.
- noun A burning of the surface; a slight burn.
Etymology [OE. sengen, AS. sengan in besengan (akin to D. zengen, G. sengen), originally, to cause to sing, fr. AS. singan to sing, in allusion to the singing or hissing sound often produced when a substance is singed, or slightly burned. See Sing.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “singe”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details