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torch

[tawrch]

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noun

a light to be carried in the hand, consisting of some combustible substance, as resinous wood, or of twisted flax or the like soaked with tallow or other flammable substance, ignited at the upper end.

something considered as a source of illumination, enlightenment, guidance, etc.: the torch of learning.

any of various lamplike devices that produce a hot flame and are used for soldering, burning off paint, etc.

Slang. an arsonist.

Chiefly British. flashlight (def. 1).

verb (used without object)

to burn or flare up like a torch.

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Torch is always a great word to know.

So is rhubarb. Does it mean:

a quarrel or squabble

to deceive, cheat, or dupe

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verb (used with object)

to subject to the flame or light of a torch, as in order to burn, sear, solder, or illuminate.

Slang. to set fire to maliciously, especially in order to collect insurance.

Idiom

carry the/a torch for, Slang. to be in love with, especially to suffer from unrequited love for: He still carries a torch for his ex-wife.

Origin:
1250–1300; Middle English torche (noun) < Old French < Vulgar Latin *torca something twisted. See torque

Related forms

torch·a·ble, adjective

torch·less, adjective

torch·like, adjective

Example Sentences

News photographs indicated that one of the security guards surrounding the torch bearers was also knocked down.

Gill, who wore the campus uniform: khaki pants and a polo shirt stamped with the college's name and torch logo.

He was always careful to keep his torch pointed at the floor if he was there at night and to leave no trace of his visit.

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News photographs indicated that one of the security guards surrounding the torch bearers was also knocked down.

Gill, who wore the campus uniform: khaki pants and a polo shirt stamped with the college's name and torch logo.

He was always careful to keep his torch pointed at the floor if he was there at night and to leave no trace of his visit.

He imagined a statue of a woman holding a torch burning with the light of freedom.

Engineers have developed an efficient torch for blasting garbage with a stream of superheated gas, known as plasma.

The showy lantern tower of the tallest spire glowed with a nighttime torch when the king was in.

Plant torch lily beside a red cordyline to make its orange flower clusters really pop.

And while the acetylene torch can leave behind molten metal to fuse back together, the oxy-gas torch makes a clean cut.

The explosion was caused by an acetylene torch used by one of the men at work on the inside plates.

Think of the torch singer who is singing straight to you, out in the audience.

They broke into the compounds of the security forces, ransacked them and put them to the torch.

Ionized hydrogen flickers a pale violet, and the welding torch ignites it into a pale blue flame.

Heat the flask's bottom with a propane torch until the water boils gently.

The benefit of keeping a torch app on your phone is that in the event of a power.

He is unafraid of singing torch songs in a queeny, operatic voice.

If you carry a second mobile phone, make sure it has a torch.

In the past, the baby birds were captured and their fat boiled down for torch oil, giving the species its common name.

From the midpoint of this division a flaming torch sprang up, spewing out â€¦ fire, hot coals and sparksâ€¦.

Also useful in the wallet is a tiny credit-card shaped torch.

As one torch guttered, they used it to light another.

They are the torch bearers of democracy, freedom and liberty.

August is literally the burning season, when the forest is driest and easiest to put to the torch.

COLLAPSE

Dictionary.com Unabridged

verb (used with object)

to point (the joints between roofing slates) with a mixture of lime and hair.

Origin:
1840–50; < French torcher to plaster with a mixture of clay and chopped straw, derivative of torche a twist of straw. See torch¹

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Link To torch

Collins

World English Dictionary

torch (tɔːtʃ)

—n
1.	US and Canadian word: flashlight a small portable electric lamp powered by one or more dry batteries
2.	a wooden or tow shaft dipped in wax or tallow and set alight
3.	anything regarded as a source of enlightenment, guidance, etc: the torch of evangelism
4.	any apparatus that burns with a hot flame for welding, brazing, or soldering
5.	carry a torch for to be in love with, esp unrequitedly
6.	put to the torch to set fire to; burn down: the looted monastery was put to the torch

—vb
7.	slang (tr) to set fire to, esp deliberately as an act of arson

[C13: from Old French torche handful of twisted straw, from Vulgar Latin torca (unattested), from Latin torquēre to twist]

'torchlike

—*adj*

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline

Word Origin & History

torch

late 13c., from O.Fr. torche, originally "twisted thing," hence "torch formed of twisted tow dipped in wax," probably from V.L. *torca, alteration of L.L. torqua, variant of classical L. torques "collar of twisted metal," from torquere "to twist" (see thwart). In Britain,

EXPAND

also applied to the battery-driven version (in U.S., flashlight). Verb meaning "set fire to" is first attested 1931. Torch song is 1927 ("My Melancholy Baby," performed by Tommy Lyman, is said to have been the first so-called), from carry a torch "suffer an unrequited love" (also 1927), an obscure notion from Broadway slang.

COLLAPSE

American Heritage

Idioms & Phrases

torch

see carry a torch; pass the torch.

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carry a torch

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Matching Quote

"The genius of Byron, which appeared at the beginning of this century, is like a funeral torch sculptured on our cradles."

-Emilio Castelar Y Ripoll

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