char

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA ^(key): /tʃɑr/ or [tʃɑr] or [tʃɑ˞]
• (UK) IPA ^(key): /tʃɑː/

• Audio (UK)

  (file)

Verb

Plain form char

Third-person singular chars

Past tense charred

Past participle charred

Present participle charring

1. (transitive) When you char something, you burn it, usually until it is black.

   Joseph forgot that the steak was cooking. By the time he remembered, it was charred so badly it looked like a black brick and tasted like ashes.

   The house fire was so hot that the walls were 'charred.

Noun

Singular char

Plural char or chars

1. Char is something that has been charred.

   After the fire, all the char on the walls was so thick you could scrape it off.

   After I use a barbecue grill, it always takes me forever to scrape the char off the grill.

2. (UK): A char is a cleaning woman.

   The family was so poor that she had her first job as a char when she was 13.