Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Singe

Singe (sĭnj), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Singed (sĭnjd); p. pr. & vb. n. Singeing (sĭnj′ĭng).] [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.] 1. 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.

You sulphurous and thought-executing fires, . . . Singe my white head! Shak.

I singed the toes of an ape through a burning glass. L'Estrange.

2. (a) To remove the nap of (cloth), by passing it rapidly over a red-hot bar, or over a flame, preliminary to dyeing it. (b) To remove the hair or down from (a plucked chicken or the like) by passing it over a flame.

Singe, n. A burning of the surface; a slight burn.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty.