SEAR • DICCIONARIO INGLES.COM • Definition of Sear

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noun

Sear n. The catch in a gunlock by which the hammer is held cocked or half cocked.

Sear spring, the spring which causes the sear to catch in the notches by which the hammer is held.

verb

Sear v. t. (past & past part. seared; pres. part. searing)

To wither; to dry up.

To burn (the surface of) to dryness and hardness; to cauterize; to expose to a degree of heat such as changes the color or the hardness and texture of the surface; to scorch; to make callous; as, to sear the skin or flesh. Also used figuratively. "I'm seared with burning steel." "It was in vain that the amiable divine tried to give salutary pain to that seared conscience." "The discipline of war, being a discipline in destruction of life, is a discipline in callousness. Whatever sympathies exist are seared." Note: Sear is allied to scorch in signification; but it is applied primarily to animal flesh, and has special reference to the effect of heat in marking the surface hard. Scorch is applied to flesh, cloth, or any other substance, and has no reference to the effect of hardness.

To sear up, to close by searing. "Cherish veins of good humor, and sear up those of ill."

adjective

Sere, Sear adj. Dry; withered; no longer green; applied to leaves. "I have lived long enough; my way of life Is fall'n into the sear, the yellow leaf."

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Etymology of 'Sear'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Sear" Quotes from Famous Books

... to the spot; but, ah! what a scene was there to blast their sight and sear the brain of his sister, and indeed of all who could look upon it. The young bridegroom smote down when his foot was on the very threshold of happiness, and by ...

— Lha Dhu; Or, The Dark Day - The Works of William Carleton, Volume Two • William Carleton

... the star of sadness As behind the beams I peer'd; All was woe that seem'd but gladness Ere my gaze with truth was sear'd; Cacodaemons, mir'd with madness, Through the fever'd ...

— Writings in the United Amateur, 1915-1922 • Howard Phillips Lovecraft

... perfectly sober, But my thoughts they were palsied and sear,— My thoughts were decidedly queer; For I knew not the month was October, And I marked not the night of the year; I forgot that sweet morceau of Auber That the band oft performed down here; And I mixed the sweet music of Auber With the Nightingale's ...

— The Book of Humorous Verse • Various

... take the lock apart: 1st. Cock the piece and apply the spring-piece to the mainspring; give the thumb-screw a turn sufficient to liberate the spring from the swivel and mainspring notch; remove the spring. 2d. The sear-spring screw. 3d. The sear-screw and sear. 4th. The bridle-screw and bridle. 5th. The tumbler-screw. 6th. The tumbler. This is driven out with a punch inserted in the screw-hole, which at the same time liberates ...

— Ordnance Instructions for the United States Navy. - 1866. Fourth edition. • Bureau of Ordnance, USN

... was a bachelor, and his "May of life" had fallen into the sear and yellow leaf at the time of which we write. He was still, however, as he more than once assured me, an ardent admirer of "the ...

— Something of Men I Have Known - With Some Papers of a General Nature, Political, Historical, and Retrospective • Adlai E. Stevenson

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