subs. (common).—Anybody or anything severe, eccentric, or hasty. Spec. TO SCORCH = to ride a bicycle, drive a motor, &c., at top speed: whence SCORCHING = HOT (q.v.).
1876. C. HINDLEY, ed. The Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack, 36. It was a very fine hot day—a regular ‘SCORCHER!’
1884. HAWLEY SMART, From Post to Finish, 361. It’s a SCORCHER … and Mr. Elliston not ‘weighing-in’ with the Caterham money of course makes it rather worse for us.
1885. J. and E. R. PENNELL, A Canterbury Pilgrimage, Preface. Nor to record our time, since we were pilgrims and not SCORCHERS.
1889. The Cornhill Magazine, July, 62. The next day was a SCORCHER.
1890. Polytechnic Magazine, 13 March, 5, 1. An impromptu SCORCH was started by trying to keep behind a really fast cabby to obtain shelter from the wind.
1893. MILLIKEN, ’Arry Ballads, 22, ‘On Woman’s Rights.’ They’re regular SCORCHERS, these women.
1897. Ally Sloper’s Half Holiday, 23 Oct., 338, 3. The SCORCHER charges, without remorse, At all the people who cross his path.
1897. Referee, 24 Oct., 3, 1. A said-to-be SCORCHING play entitled “At the Foot of the Altar.”
1901. Daily Telegraph, 7 Jan., 8, 3. As a result of complaints as to the excessive speed at which motor-cars are driven … the police have been keeping a sharp look-out for SCORCHERS.
