torch

Meaning

Noun

1. 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.
2. (broadly) 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.
3. (Commonwealth, abbreviation, alt-of, broadly, ellipsis) 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.
4. (broadly) A flower which is red or red-orange in colour like a flame.
5. (broadly) A spike (“kind of inflorescence”) made up of spikelets.
6. (broadly, in-plural) The common mullein, great mullein, or torchwort (Verbascum thapsus).
7. (broadly, obsolete) A cactus with a very elongated body; a ceroid cactus; a torch cactus or torch-thistle.
8. (figuratively) A source of enlightenment or guidance.
9. (figuratively) In carry, hand on,take up pass on the torch: a precious cause, principle, tradition, etc., which needs to be protected and transmitted to others.
10. (abbreviation, alt-of, ellipsis) Ellipsis of torch drive (“a spacecraft engine which produces thrust by nuclear fusion”).
11. (Canada, US, abbreviation, alt-of, ellipsis) Ellipsis of blowtorch (“a tool which projects a controlled stream of a highly flammable gas over a spark in order to produce a controlled flame”).
12. (US, slang) An arsonist.

Verb

1. (transitive) To illuminate or provide (a place) with torches (noun sense 1).
2. (informal, transitive) 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).
3. (figuratively, transitive) To make damaging claims about (someone or something); to ruin the reputation of (someone or something); to disparage, to insult.
4. (intransitive) Of a fire: to burn.
5. (intransitive) To travel in a spacecraft propelled by a torch drive (“an engine which produces thrust by nuclear fusion”).
6. (UK, dialectal, figuratively, intransitive) To (appear to) flare up like a torch.
7. (US, intransitive) To catch fish or other aquatic animals by torchlight; to go torch-fishing.

Verb

To point (“fill up and bring to a smooth finish”) (inside joints of slates laid on laths) using lime hair mortar.

Synonyms

flashlight

🔦

lamp

light

flambeau

lantern

🏮

flare

brand

link

🔗

flame

flannel mullein

blowlamp

fire-brand

blowtorch

common mullein

burn

woolly mullein

great mullein

Aaron’s rod

cresset

set afire

firebrand

candle

🕯️

destroy by fire

torchlight

small lamp

scorch

Verbascum thapsus

deflagrate

crotch

boo

chimney

bale

charge

cauterize

cauterise

gage

blonde

bake

airplane

✈️

burrito

🌯

flower

🌸

burn up

block

flashing

fritter away

funk

burn off

gangster

gash

beacon

Translations

torche

torcia

Fackel

antorcha

fakkel

toorts

lampe de poche

flambeau

fiaccola

Taschenlampe

tocha

linterna

🏮

flambouw

πυρσός

lampe

Pronounced as (IPA)

/tɔːtʃ/

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English: torch

Cognate with French: torche

Cognate with Latin: lampada trādere

Cognate with Ancient Greek: λᾰμπᾰ́δᾰ πᾰρᾰδιδόναι

In summary

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”).
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 sense 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.