From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:
parse \parse\ (p[aum]rs), v. t. [imp. & p. p. parsed
(p[aum]rst); p. pr. & vb. n. parsing.] [L. pars a part;
pars orationis a part of speech. See Part, n.] (Gram.)
To resolve into its elements, as a sentence, pointing out the
several parts of speech, and their relation to each other by
government or agreement; to analyze and describe
grammatically.
[1913 Webster]
Let him construe the letter into English, and parse it
over perfectly. --Ascham.
[1913 Webster]
From WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006) [wn]:
parse
v 1: analyze syntactically by assigning a constituent structure
to (a sentence)
From Jargon File (4.4.4, 14 Aug 2003) [jargon]:
parse
vt.
1. To determine the syntactic structure of a sentence or other
utterance (close to the standard English meaning). "That was the one I
saw you." "I can't parse that."
2. More generally, to understand or comprehend. "It's very simple; you
just kretch the glims and then aos the zotz." "I can't parse that."
3. Of fish, to have to remove the bones yourself. "I object to parsing
fish", means "I don't want to get a whole fish, but a sliced one is
okay". A parsed fish has been deboned. There is some controversy over
whether unparsed should mean `bony', or also mean `deboned'.