TORCH

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does torch mean? 

• TORCH (noun)
  The noun TORCH has 4 senses:

1. a light usually carried in the hand; consists of some flammable substance

2. tall-stalked very woolly mullein with densely packed yellow flowers; ancient Greeks and Romans dipped the stalks in tallow for funeral torches

3. a small portable battery-powered electric lamp

4. a burner that mixes air and gas to produce a very hot flame

  Familiarity information: TORCH used as a noun is uncommon.

• TORCH (verb)
  The verb TORCH has 1 sense:

1. burn maliciously, as by arson

  Familiarity information: TORCH used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• TORCH (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A light usually carried in the hand; consists of some flammable substance

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("torch" is a kind of...):

light; light source (any device serving as a source of illumination)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "torch"):

flambeau (a flaming torch (such as are used in processions at night))

Derivation:

torch (burn maliciously, as by arson)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Tall-stalked very woolly mullein with densely packed yellow flowers; ancient Greeks and Romans dipped the stalks in tallow for funeral torches

Classified under:

Nouns denoting plants

Synonyms:

Aaron's rod; common mullein; flannel mullein; great mullein; torch; Verbascum thapsus; woolly mullein

Hypernyms ("torch" is a kind of...):

flannel leaf; mullein; velvet plant (any of various plants of the genus Verbascum having large usually woolly leaves and terminal spikes of yellow or white or purplish flowers)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A small portable battery-powered electric lamp

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

flashlight; torch

Hypernyms ("torch" is a kind of...):

electric lamp (a lamp powered by electricity)

Meronyms (parts of "torch"):

flashlight battery (a small dry battery containing dry cells; used to power flashlights)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "torch"):

penlight (a small flashlight resembling a fountain pen)

Sense 4

Meaning:

A burner that mixes air and gas to produce a very hot flame

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

blowlamp; blowtorch; torch

Hypernyms ("torch" is a kind of...):

burner (an apparatus for burning fuel (or refuse))

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "torch"):

oxyacetylene torch (a blowtorch that burns oxyacetylene)

Derivation:

torch (burn maliciously, as by arson)

• TORCH (verb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Burn maliciously, as by arson

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Context example:

The madman torched the barns

Hypernyms (to "torch" is one way to...):

burn; burn down; fire (destroy by fire)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

torch (a burner that mixes air and gas to produce a very hot flame)

torch (a light usually carried in the hand; consists of some flammable substance)

 Context examples 

Just oblige me with that torch again, will you?

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

Then, at last, we lit our torches.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

By heaven! cried Sir Nigel, it is as bright as day with the torches.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

You throw a torch into a pile of buildings, and when they are consumed, you sit among the ruins and lament the fall.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

Usually, it is a time when you can burst out from behind the scenes, carrying a brilliant torch to energize others to your causes.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

So at last they set out together, and took with them their little child; and she chose a large hall with thick walls for him to sit in while the wedding-torches were lighted; but, unluckily, no one saw that there was a crack in the door.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

We made a long march the remaining part of the day, and, rested at night with five hundred guards on each side of me, half with torches, and half with bows and arrows, ready to shoot me if I should offer to stir.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

Plasma that is produced using a torch and a radio frequency (RF) generator, wherein flowing gases are introduced into the torch, the RF field is activated and the gas in the RF coil region is made electrically conductive.

(Inductively-Coupled Plasma, NCI Thesaurus)

The maneuver did not succeed as well as she expected, however, for though just in the act of setting fire to a funeral pyre, the Professor dropped his torch, metaphorically speaking, and made a dive after the little blue ball.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

And so with one remark or another all marched out and left Silver and me alone with the torch.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)