means To burn or singe a surface just enough to discolor, dry, or damage it without fully consuming it — or, of heat or sun, to parch.

from From Middle English scorchen, likely from Old French escorchier, 'to strip off skin, flay' (from Late Latin excorticare, 'to remove the bark or hide'). The sense seems to have wandered from skinning toward burning, perhaps blurred with the Old Norse skorpna, 'to be shrivelled' — so behind the modern word sit two cousins: one that flays, one that crisps.