searing
/ˈsɪərɪŋ
/adjective
1Extremely hot or intense: the searing heat of the sun a searing pain...
- Solstice's gaze drifted as the searing pain intensified.
- Another one exploded near the side of the ship, sending searing heat and intense reddish-light across the area.
- She stamped her foot, just to be certain, instantly feeling the searing pain and heat shooting through her leg…
Synonyms
scorching, blistering, flaming, blazing (hot), baking (hot), burning, fiery, torrid, parching, withering
informal boiling, boiling hot, sizzling, roasting, sweltering
intense, excruciating, agonizing, sharp, stabbing, shooting, stinging, severe, extreme, fierce, harrowing, piercing, penetrating, racking, insufferable, unbearable, unendurable, torturous
rare exquisite
1.1Severely critical: a searing indictment of the government’s performance...
- The Truth About Drug Companies, by Dr Marcia Angell, is a searing indictment of an industry that has a cynical contempt for consumers.
- It's a searing indictment of a political elite which can champion Britpop and a return to 1960s cool on the one hand without realising the implications.
- In this searing indictment, he argues that the law lord's findings clearly contradict the evidence he heard.
Synonyms
fierce, savage, blistering, scathing, stinging, devastating, mordant, trenchant, caustic, cutting, biting, withering, virulent, vitriolic
Derivatives
searingly
- And Skinner's autobiography was searingly open.
- Released in 1981, as riots raged on Britain's streets, Ghost Town was one of the most searingly eloquent protest songs ever written.
- But it was she and her sisters who prompted their mother to be so searingly honest about John Thaw, she tells Margarette Driscoll