torch

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“
Archie and his band leapt back as a torch was applied to the straw.

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Definitions (24)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (6)

  1. noun A portable light produced by the flame of a stick of resinous wood or of a flammable material wound about the end of a stick of wood; a flambeau.
  2. noun Chiefly British A flashlight.
  3. noun Something that serves to illuminate, enlighten, or guide.
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Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (12)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (1)

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Examples (50)

  • Our hoarse breathing, the scuff of our feet on the damp stone, and the crackling of the torch were the only sounds I perceived at first. —  Legends II
  • The scant light of the torch was already fading, raising the very real prospect that they would finish this journey in utter darkness. —  AHMM,January-February2008
  • The light from the torch was awakening the flies, fat bluebottles. —  Death of a Dustman
  • An unarmed man with a torch is an admirable target. —  Flowers for the Judge - Margery Allingham - Campion 07 - 1937
  • Here the cotton had been piled in a narrow street, and when the torch was applied by similar Confederate orders, the rising wind easily floated the blazing flakes to the near roofs of buildings. —  A Short Life of Abraham Lincoln
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This word has been looked up 107 times.

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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

lantern ·  lamp ·  flashlight ·  flare ·  flame ·  knife ·  lance ·  blaze ·  spark ·  gun ·  arrow ·  beam

Used in the same contextWord Family

torch:   torches
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (4)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English torche, from Old French, from Vulgar Latin *torca, alteration of Latin torqua, variant of torquēs, torque, from Latin torquēre, to twist; see terkw- in Indo-European roots.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (3)

  1. from Middle English torche, from Old French (and F.) torche =Provencal torcha =Italian torcia (cf. Spanish antorcha, a torch), from Middle Latin tortia, a torch, so called as made of a twisted roll of tow or other material, from Latin tortus, past participle of torquere, twist: see tort. Cf. torce, torse
  2. from torch, n.
  3. from French torcher. wipe, beat (cf. torchis, mortar of loam and straw), from torche, literally a twist: see torch.
 

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/tɔrtʃ/
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