torch
/ˈtɔːtʃ/ noun, verb
Forms torches torching torched
- noun A stick of wood or plant fibres twisted together, with one end soaked in a flammable substance such as resin or tallow and set on fire, which is held in the hand, put into a wall bracket, or stuck into the ground, and used chiefly as a light source. “The mob of angry villagers carried torches and pitchforks to the vampire’s castle.”
- noun (by extension) A similarly shaped implement with a replaceable supply of flammable material; specifically, a pole with a lamp at one end.
- noun A flower which is red or red-orange in colour like a flame.
- noun A spike (“kind of inflorescence”) made up of spikelets.
- noun (chiefly in the plural) The common mullein, great mullein, or torchwort (Verbascum thapsus).
- noun (obsolete) A cactus with a very elongated body; a ceroid cactus; a torch cactus or torch-thistle.
- noun A source of enlightenment or guidance.
- noun In carry, hand on, pass on, take up the torch: a precious cause, principle, tradition, etc., which needs to be protected and transmitted to others.
- verb To illuminate or provide (a place) with torches (noun etymology 1, noun sense 1).
- verb (informal, originally US) To intentionally destroy (something) by setting it on fire, especially when committing arson in furtherance of some other criminal act (e.g. insurance fraud or the destruction of evidence). “Some hoodlums had torched a derelict automobile, which emitted a ghastly pall of thick, black smoke that filled the street.”
- verb (figurative) To make damaging claims about (someone or something); to ruin the reputation of (someone or something); to disparage, to insult. “That influencer torched the company’s PR department.”
- verb Of a fire: to burn. “The flames torched up twenty feet in the air.”
- verb (science fiction) To travel in a spacecraft propelled by a torch drive (“an engine which produces thrust by nuclear fusion”).
- verb (UK, dialectal, figurative) To (appear to) flare up like a torch.
- verb (US, fishing) To catch fish or other aquatic animals by torchlight; to go torch-fishing.
- verb (transitive, masonry, archaic or historical) To point (“fill up and bring to a smooth finish”) (inside joints of slates laid on laths) using lime hair mortar.
Synonyms
brand firebrand flambeau torchlight burn ignite inflame set ablaze aflame alight conflagrate fire fire up enkindle light light up set afire set aflame set alight set fire common mullein great mullein Aaron's rod flannel mullein woolly mullein Verbascum thapsus flashlight blowtorch blowlamp
Etymology
The noun is derived from Middle English torch, torche (“large candle; lighted stick; (figurative) sunbeam”), from Old French torche, torque (“torch; bundle of (twisted) straw”) (modern French torche); further etymology uncertain, probably from Vulgar Latin *torca (“coiled object”) (referring to a torch made from twisted plant fibres dipped in a flammable substance such as pitch), from Latin torqua, a variant of torquis (“collar of twisted metal, torque; wreath”), from torqueō (“to twist, wind”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *terkʷ- (“to spin; to turn”).
Etymology 1 sense 2.3 (Verbascum thapsus) is either due to the plant’s spike of yellow flowers, or because its leaves and stalks were used to make torches (noun etymology 1 sense 1). Etymology 1 sense 3.2 (“precious cause, etc., which needs to be protected and transmitted to others”) is derived from Latin lampada trādere, from Ancient Greek λᾰμπᾰ́δᾰ πᾰρᾰδιδόναι (lămpắdă părădidónai, “to hand over the torch”), a reference to the torch race held at various festivals such as the Panathenaic Games in Ancient Greece, which involved a relay where a torch was passed from one runner to another.
The verb is derived from the noun.
Borrowed from French torcher (“to daub; to wipe; to build or plaster with clay mixed with chopped straw”), from torche (“bundle of (twisted) straw; torch”) (see further at etymology 1) + -er (suffix forming the infinitives of first-conjugation verbs).
Webster’s 1913
- noun A light or luminary formed of some combustible substance, as of resinous wood; a large candle or flambeau, or a lamp giving a large, flaring flame.
Etymology [OE. torche, F. torche a torch, rag, wisp, pad; probably from a derivative of L. torquere, tortum, to twist, because twisted like a rope; cf. F. torcher to rub, wipe, It. topcia a torch, torciare to wrap, twist, OF. torse a torse. Cf. Torture.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “torch”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details