Searing means burning fiercely, on the tongue or the skin. Searing heat, a searing pain, searing sun.
In cooking, searing means browning the outside quickly at high heat, and the old claim that it seals in the juices is false — what it does is build flavour through the Maillard reaction. Figuratively a searing account is one that hurts to read.
1adjectivesearingBurning fiercely.
“We walked across the desert in the searing midday heat.”
searing is a quality of heat.