| 释义 |
▪ I. torch, n.|tɔːtʃ|
Forms: 3–6 torche, (4 torge, thorche, 5 tourche, 6 tortche, towrge, pl. torchesse), 6– torch.
[ME. a. OF. torche = Pr. torcha, according to Diez:—late pop. L. *torca, from stem *tork- of torquēre to twist; cf. also It. torcia (Veronese, and Venetian torzo), Sp. antorcha, earlier entorcha, Pg. tocha ‘torch’. The primary sense is taken to have been ‘a twist’, ‘something twisted’, torches having been made of twisted tow dipped in pitch, or the like. Cf. also tortis.
(The derivation of the Eng. from F. torche is certain, but the etymology of the latter, and of the Romanic forms as a whole, is still in dispute: see Diez s.v. Torciare, Gröber Archiv f. Lat. Lexicog. VI. 128, Körting Lat. Rom. Wbch. 1901 s.v. Tortica 9616.)]
1. a. A light to be carried in the hand, consisting of a stick of resinous wood, or of twisted hemp or similar material soaked with tallow, resin, or other inflammable substance. Also applied to a lamp carried on a pole or similar appliance, and now also = electric torch (b) s.v. electric a. 2 b.
c1290S. Eng. Leg. I. 467/187 With-oute liȝht of torche. c1330Assump. Virg. 598 (B.M. MS.) Loke þat ȝe haue candele Torches boþe faire & fele. 13..Sir Beues (A.) 1659 Þar inne he seȝ torges [v.r. torches] i-liȝt. 1377Langl. P. Pl. B. xvii. 203 To a torche or a tapre þe trinitee is lykned; As wex and a weke were twyned togideres, And þanne a fyre flaumende forth oute of bothe. 1483Cath. Angl. 390/1 A Torche, torticius, torchia. 1546–7in Swayne Sarum Churchw. Acc. (1896) 274, viij lb. of waxe to make twoo torches agaynst Alholoutyde. 1555in Shropsh. Par. Documents (1903) 56 Peyde towrd byying of ii towrges. 1606Shakes. Tr. & Cr. v. i. 92 Follow his Torch, he goes to Chalcas Tent. 1721Bailey, A Torch..a Staff of Deal on which Wax-Candles are stuck, to be lighted on several Occasions. 1821Scott Kenilw. xxx, Onward came the cavalcade, illuminated by two hundred thick waxen torches. 1901E. W. Hornung Black Mask xii. 253, I saw Raffles on my right striking with his torch; a face flew out of the darkness to meet the thick glass bulb with the glowing wire enclosed. 1906Daily Chron. 14 July 5 The ordinary tarred-rope torch. 1936W. Faulkner Absalom, Absalom! ix. 370 He..saw the light of the torch approaching along the upper hall. 1967P. Shaffer Black Comedy 48 The Colonel takes the torch from Harold and shines it pitilessly in Schuppanzigh's face.
b. fig. or allusively. Something figured as a source of illumination, enlightenment, or guidance, or of heat or ‘conflagration’. Also in phrs.: to hand (pass, etc.) on the torch (and varr.), to pass on a tradition, etc., esp. one of enlightenment (after L. lampada tradere, Gr. λαµπάδα παραδιδόναι, a metaphor from the ancient Greek torch-race; cf. lamp n.1 1 c and see sense 3 below); to carry (etc.) a torch for (someone), to feel (esp. unrequited) love for, to feel lingering affection for.
1621Burton Anat. Mel. iii. ii. vi. i. (1651) 545, I light my Candle from their Torches. 1664Jasz-Berenyi (title) A new Torch to the Latine Tongue. 1775Sheridan Rivals Epil., The torch of love. 1878R. B. Smith Carthage 19 The torch of Greek learning and civilisation was to be extinguished. 1887Q. Rev. Oct. 276 Her [sc. Italy's] work has been done among the nations, and in their turn France, England and Germany hand on the torch. 1912E. Gosse Portr. & Sk. p. viii, They were all..engaged in keeping bright, and in handing on unquenched, the torch of literary tradition. 1927Vanity Fair (N.Y.) Nov. 132/3 When a fellow ‘carries the torch’ it doesn't imply that he is ‘lit up’ or drunk, but girl-less. His steady has quit him for another or he is lonesome for her. 1932L. Golding Magnolia Street i. xi. 189 He had sometimes hoped that in Max a son was born to him who would take the torch from his dying hand and jump on to the platform he had vacated. 1953L. Z. Hobson Celebrity vi. 78 Jim's still carrying a torch for Roosevelt. 1959Manch. Guardian 16 June 5/2 She was carrying a torch for someone. 1969J. Gross Rise & Fall Man of Lett. iv. 104 Dante was the poet of Catholicism, who handed over the torch to Shakespeare, the poet of Feudalism, who passed it on to Milton, the poet of Protestantism. 1977H. Fast Immigrants v. 305 Maybe you got a torch for her, maybe not. But we both got her interest at heart.
c. = blow-torch s.v. blow-.
1909Webster, Torch, 3... Any of various devices for emitting a hot flame, as for vaporizing oil to start an oil engine, burning off old paint, melting solder, or the like. 1931Writer's Digest Oct. 28 A keister torch is an acetylene torch which can be carried in a suitcase. 1961Sheet Metal Industries XXXVIII. 613/1 The high rating of the water cooled models..is made possible by the design which permits the circulation of cooling water right to the tip of the torch. 1978S. Brill Teamsters vi. 225 Our theory is that the car was hidden there and then cut up with torches and carted out.
d. An arsonist. U.S. slang.
1938Reader's Digest Mar. 71/1 The torch is now serving a 20-year sentence. 1977Time 31 Oct. 28/3 Blazes are set by quasi-professional ‘torches’ hired by landlords, real estate brokers, store owners, or welfare tenants who want to be relocated.
2. transf.
a. A spike composed of spikelets; also fig. said of a red or flame-coloured flower.
1578Lyte Dodoens i. lxiii. 91 Of this kinde, there is founde an other, the Spikes, eares, or torches wherof, are very dubble,..in steede of the little knappes or heades, it bringeth forth a number of other smal torches, wherof eche one is lyke to the spike or torch of great Plantayne. 1862B. Taylor Poet's Jrnl. ii. Lost May, And burns in meadow⁓grass the phlox His torch of purple fire.
b. (Usually in pl. torches.) The Great Mullein, Verbascum Thapsus (or other species): from its tall spike of yellow flowers (or, according to some, from the use of its thick woolly leaves and stalks as material for torches).
1552Cooper Elyot's Dict., Blattaria, an herbe called Moleyne, or a kinde of Moleine called Torche. 1578Lyte Dodoens i. lxxxi. 120 Mulleyn is called..in English also..Hig[h]taper, Torches, and Longworte. [Cf. 118 The whole top with his pleasant yellow floures sheweth like to a waxe Candell or taper cunningly wrought.] 1657W. Coles Adam in Eden cxii, Called of the Latines Candela Regia and Candelaria, because the elder age used the stalks dipped in Suet to burn... In English also some call it Torches. 1861Miss Pratt Flower. Pl. IV. 135 Its tall tapering spike of light yellow flowers..suggested..the old names of High Taper..and Torches.
†c. Applied to a species of cactus or cactaceous plant: prob. = torch-thistle. Obs.
1597Gerarde Herbal 1015 The torch or thornie Euphorbium..called of the Indians Vragua..a torch, taper, or waxe candle, whereupon..in Latine of those that understoode the Indian toong, Cereus, or a torch. 1666J. Davies Hist. Caribby Isles 62 The Plant..some of the European Inhabitants of these Islands call the Torch: it is a kind of great Thistle.
3. attrib. and Comb., as torch battery, torch-blaze, torch-brand, torch-carrier, torch-flame, torch-flare, torch-glare, torch-stick, torch-waving, torch-wick; torchlike adj. and adv., torch-lighted ppl. adj., torch-lit adj.; also, torch-blade, the Great Mullein (= 2 b); torch-carrying vbl. n. (fig.), the harbouring of (esp. unrequited) love (see sense 1 b above); Torch Commando S. Afr. (see quots.); torch-course = torch-race; torch-dance, a dance in which some of the performers carry lighted torches; torch-fish, a deep-sea fish, Linophryne lucifer, having a luminous bulb upon the first dorsal spine, above the eye; torch-fishing, fishing by torch-light at night (also called torching: see torch v.1 3); torch-flower, any bright red or yellow flower resembling or suggesting a torch, e.g. the torch-lily; † torch-herb, the great mullein; torch-holder, one who or that which holds a torch; spec. a device for supporting a torch; also, a gas-bracket or the like imitating this; torch igniter (see quots.); torch-lily, the liliaceous genus Tritoma, having spikes of bright scarlet flowers; also called ‘red-hot poker’; torch-man, a man who carries a torch, a torch-bearer; also fig.; torch-pine, Pinus rigida of N. America; = pitch pine; torch-plant = torch-thistle; torch-race, in Gr. Antiq., a race held at certain festivals, in which the runners carried lighted torches, and (in some cases) passed them on to other runners posted at certain points: = lampadedromy; torch singer orig. U.S., a singer of torch songs; torch singing vbl. n. (orig. U.S.), the singing of torch songs; torch song orig. U.S., a popular song on the subject of unrequited love; a sad sentimental or romantic song; torch-staff (pl. -staves), a staff upon which a torch is carried; † torch-tree, rendering L. tæda, a resinous species of pine, the wood of which was used for torches; also Ixora parviflora, an East Indian shrub with showy flowers. See also torch-bearer, etc.
1926–7Army & Navy Stores Catal. p. xxii/3 (Index), *Batteries, Torch. 1957C. Smith Case of Torches x. 128 Bring in the..report on the torch batteries.
1861Mrs. Lankester Wild Flowers 102 Great Mullein,..‘*Torch-blade’, or ‘King's Taper’.
1818Milman Samor 317 A *torchblaze, meet to search Earth's utmost.
1825Scott Talism. iii, I am Theodorick of Engaddi—I am the *torch⁓brand of the desert—I am the flail of the infidels.
1864Trevelyan Compet. Wallah (1866) 220 The other half are..listening to the disquisition of the *torch-carrier.
1970E. R. Johnson God Keepers (1971) iii. 26 When does the *torch-carrying stop..and work itself into hate?
1951Sun (Baltimore) 9 Nov. 13/1 South Africa's *Torch Commando, an organization of war veterans pledged to uphold the Dominion Constitution, is building up into a potent opposition to Prime Minister Daniel F. Malan's Nationalist Government. 1971L. Blackwell Blackwell Remembers xviii. 158 The Torch Commando, a militant organization which strongly opposed the policy of the Nationalist Government relating to the coloured voters at the Cape.
1839T. Mitchell Aristoph., Frogs 124 note, From..Pausanias we learn that three *torch-courses were held in the Ceramicus.
1907Discovery Oct. 122 The *Torch-fish... On the upper jaw..there is a larger ovate bulb supported on a tentacle... It possesses powerful phosphorescent properties, the light being under the control of the fish. This is the ‘torch’.
1840Browning Sordello i. 80 Like a *torch-flame turned By the wind.
1910W. de la Mare Three Mulla-Mulgars xv. 205 All the Men of the Mountains came out with their little ones in the starlight and *torch-flare to see them go. 1959E. Pound Thrones cii. 82 Lit by the torch-flare.
1849[W. M. Call] Reverberations i. 59 The *Torch-flower burning by the river. 1905in Daily Chron. 28 Dec. 3/2 It is now ablaze with the red torch flowers of an aloe.
1908L. Binyon in Academy 14 Mar. 553/1 He stands on high in the *torch-glare.
1598Florio, Lunaria, the herbe called *torch herbe or woollblade.
1874tr. Hugo's Ninety-Three iii. i. xix, They stuck an iron *torch-holder into the wall.
1948Jrnl. R. Aeronaut. Soc. LII. 170/2 The simple expedient of fitting an igniter plug in the flame tube was not sufficient to cater for the more arduous duties of ignition, such as under flight conditions at over 20,000 feet. The *torch igniter was designed..to get over these problems. This unit was an ordinary igniter plug, with a subsidiary supply of fuel to it. The fuel was injected through a small hole on to the plug points. 1970Gloss. Aeronaut. & Astronaut. Terms (B.S.I.) viii. 17 Torch igniter, a combined igniter plug and fuel atomizer for initiating combustion when starting the turbine.
1881‘Mark Twain’ Prince & Pauper xxxii. 365 We find the *torch-lighted galleries already filling up with people. 1975R. H. Rimmer Premar Experiments (1976) ii. 164 In every direction you looked, torchlighted faces were swaying to the music.
1579J. Jones Preserv. Bodie & Soule i. xl. 87 [Comets] Swordlike, hornelike, *torchlike. 1897Daily News 25 June 2/6 Meanwhile our [Jubilee] bonfires [on Skiddaw]..burned torch⁓like downwards with a grand head of flame.
1884Miller Plant-n., *Torch-lily, the genus Tritoma.
1842Sir A. De Vere Song Faith 186 The *torch-lit gloom of Auchen's aisle.
a1618Sylvester Mayden's Blush 364 The sacred *Torch-man (to that end imploy'd). 1856J. W. Kaye Sir J. Malcolm I. vii. 162 The bearers or torchmen who ran by his side.
a1845Hood Incendiary Song xviii, Burn all *torch-parading elves!
1890Cent. Dict. s.v. Pine, Pitch-pine, (a) in America, Pinus rigida... Also called *torch-pine.
1696Phil. Trans. XIX. 296 The Dildoe-tree is the same with the Cereus or *Torch-Plant.
1812C. Dunster tr. Aristoph., Frogs i. ii. note, In [Ceramicus] was situated the academy, where the *torch-race was held. 1875Jowett Plato (ed. 2) III. 12 The promise of an equestrian torch-race in the evening.
1934J. O'Hara Appointment in Samarra vii. 210 Taking that dame out, that *torch singer. 1973Times 15 Dec. 10/1 She is sometimes a movie vamp, or a torch singer.
1947E. Jenkins Young Enthusiasts 163 Jazz bands, *torch singing and swing. 1983Listener 9 June 35/4 If this is ‘torch’ singing, then Julie London is not a flimsy key-ring flashlight.
1927Vanity Fair (N.Y.) Nov. 132/3 ‘Sing a *torch song’ is commonly used in Broadway late⁓places as a request for a ballad in commemoration of the lonesome state. Tommy Lyman is said to have created the slang and he announced one night: ‘My famous torch song: ‘Come To Me, My Melancholy Baby’.’ 1939G. Greene Lawless Roads x. 256, I was grateful for the darkness and the torch songs. 1977Listener 13 Oct. 481/2 The songs are pleasant parodies of Nashville, of torch songs and even of grand opera.
1599Shakes. Hen. V, iv. ii. 46 The Horsemen sit like fixed Candlesticks, With *Torch-staues in their hands.
1601Holland Pliny xvi. x. I. 462 A sixt sort..of these trees..is properly called Teda (i. the *Torch-tree): the same yeeldeth more plentie of moisture and liquor than the rest. 1862Balfour Timber Trees Asia (ed. 2) 135 Ixora parviflora:..Torch Tree..A small tree..more used for torches than for any other purpose, as it burns very readily and clearly.
1706Phillips (ed. Kersey), *Torch-weed, a kind of Herb.
1444Compota Domest. (Abbotsf. 1836) 18 In vij petris di{ddd}huiusmodi *torchweke emptis.
▪ II. torch, v.1|tɔːtʃ|
[f. torch n.]
1. a. trans. To furnish, or light, with a torch or torches.
(See torched, and cf. torcher1 1.)
b. To set alight, to set fire to, esp. in order to claim insurance money. slang (orig. and chiefly U.S.).
1931Writer's Digest Oct. 29, I had just lit a match to torch the squib when I heard steps behind me. 1971Wall St. Jrnl. 16 Aug. 1/3 Two bombs were planted in a university dormitory, part of a Belfast soccer stadium was torched, and snipers attacked army patrols. 1977Time 31 Oct. 34/1 Griffith relied on an arsonist turned informant..who worked as a ‘broker’ for landlords eager to torch their property. 1979Arizona Daily Star 22 July e4/4 BIA police suspected a night of violence..when a group of people ran a car into Pike Creek... The car was then torched. 1983Granta vii. 37 Halfway through the first pint of coffee, I torched a cigarette. Mmm, tasted good.
2. intr. To flare like a torch; to rise like smoke from a torch. dial.
1847–78Halliwell s.v., Recently heard at Boyton,..‘Law! how them clouds torch up, we shall ha rain’.
3. To catch fish, etc., by torch-light. U.S.
1887Fisheries of U.S. Sect. v. II. 502 Another method, known as ‘torching’,..is practiced principally by negroes. Having provided themselves with torches they visit the sandy shores at night and catch the terrapins as they come upon the beach to spawn.
▪ III. torch, v.2|tɔːtʃ|
[a. F. torcher to wipe, daub, rough-cast, build or plaster with clay mixed with chopped straw, etc., f. torche twisted straw, etc. (the same word originally as torche torch n.).]
trans. In Plastering, to point the inside joints of slating laid on lath with lime hair mortar.
a1850[Remembered in use by workmen in Oxford]. 1851[implied in torcher2]. 1882in Ogilvie (Annandale). 1895Jrnl. R. Inst. Brit. Archit. 14 Mar. 351 The roof should be torched—not bedded.
Hence ˈtorching vbl. n., pointing or daubing of this kind: see also torcher2.
▪ IV. torch
var. of troch, -e, tine of stag's horn. |