1926–7 Army & Navy Stores Catal. Index p. xxii/3 Batteries, Torch.

1957 C. Smith Case of Torches x. 128 Bring in the..report on the torch batteries.

1861 P. Lankester Wild Flowers 102 Great Mullein,..‘Torch-blade’, or ‘King's Taper’.

1818 H. H. Milman Samor xi. 317 A torchblaze, meet to search Earth's utmost.

1825 W. Scott Talisman iii, in Tales Crusaders III. 80 I am Theodrick of Engaddi—I am the torch-brand of the desert—I am the flail of the infidels.

1864 G. O. Trevelyan Lett. from Competition Wallah viii, in Macmillan's Mag. Jan. 204/2 The other half are..listening to a disquisition of the torch-carrier.

1970 E. R. Johnson God Keepers (1971) iii. 26 When does the torch-carrying stop..and work itself into hate?

1951 Sun (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.

1971 L. 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.

1839 T. Mitchell in Aristophanes Frogs 124 (note) From..Pausanias we learn that three torch-courses were held in the Ceramicus.

1907 Discovery 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’.

1840 R. Browning Sordello i. 80 Like a torch-flame turned By the wind.

1910 W. 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.

1959 E. Pound Thrones cii. 82 Lit by the torch-flare.

1849 W. M. W. Call Reverberations i. 59 The Torch-flower burning by the river.

1905 in Daily Chron. 28 Dec. 3/2 It is now ablaze with the red torch flowers of an aloe.

1908 L. Binyon in Academy 14 Mar. 553/1 He stands on high in the torch-glare.

1598 J. Florio Worlde of Wordes Lunaria, the herbe called torch herbe or woollblade.

1874 tr. V. Hugo Ninety-three iii. i. xix They stuck an iron torch-holder into the wall.

1948 Jrnl. Royal Aeronaut. Soc. 52 170/2 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.

1970 Gloss. 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 ‘M. Twain’ Prince & Pauper xxxii. 365 We find the torch-lighted galleries already filling up with people.

1975 R. H. Rimmer Premar Exper. (1976) ii. 164 In every direction you looked, torchlighted faces were swaying to the music.

1579 J. Jones Arte preseruing Bodie & Soule i. xl. 87 [Comets] Swordlike, hornelike, torchlike.

1897 Daily News 25 June 2/6 Meanwhile our [Jubilee] bonfires [on Skiddaw]..burned torch~like downwards with a grand head of flame.

1884 W. Miller Dict. Eng. Names Plants Torch-lily, the genus Tritoma.

1842 A. T. de Vere Song of Faith 186 The torch-lit gloom of Auchen's aisle.

a1618 J. Sylvester tr. G. Fracastoro Maidens Blush (1620) sig. B4^v The sacred Torch-man (to that end imploy'd).

1856 J. W. Kaye Life Sir J. Malcolm I. vii. 162 The bearers or torchmen who ran by his side.

1839 T. Hood in Comic Ann. 36 Burn all torch-parading elves!

1890 Cent. Dict. at Pine Pitch-pine, (a) in America, Pinus rigida... Also called torch-pine.

1696 Philos. Trans. 1695–7 (Royal Soc.) 19 296 The Dildoe-tree is the same with the Cereus or Torch-Plant.

1812 C. Dunster tr. Aristophanes Frogs i. ii. (note) In [Ceramicus] was situated the academy, where the torch-race was held.

1871 B. Jowett in tr. Plato Dialogues II. 10 The promise of an equestrian torch-race in the evening.

1934 J. O'Hara Appointment in Samarra vii. 210 Taking that dame out, that torch singer.

1973 Times 15 Dec. 10/1 She is sometimes a movie vamp, or a torch singer.

1947 E. Jenkins Young Enthusiasts 163 Jazz bands, torch singing and swing.

1983 Listener 9 June 35/4 If this is ‘torch’ singing, then Julie London is not a flimsy key-ring flashlight.

1927 Vanity 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”.’

1939 G. Greene Lawless Roads x. 256 I was grateful for the darkness and the torch songs.

1977 Listener 13 Oct. 481/2 The songs are pleasant parodies of Nashville, of torch songs and even of grand opera.

a1616 W. Shakespeare Henry V (1623) iv. ii. 46 The Horsemen sit like fixed Candlesticks, With Torch-staues in their hands. View more context for this quotation

1601 P. Holland tr. Pliny Hist. World I. xvi. x. 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.

1862 E. Balfour Timber Trees India (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.

1706 Phillips's New World of Words (new ed.) Torch-weed, a kind of Herb.

1444 in W. B. D. D. Turnbull Compota Domestica (1836) 18 In vij petris di…huiusmodi torchweke emptis.

1847–78 J. O. Halliwell Dict. Archaic & Provinc. Words (at cited word) Recently heard at Boyton,..‘Law! how them clouds torch up, we shall ha rain’.

1887 G. B. Goode Fisheries U.S.: Hist. & Methods 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.

a1850 [Remembered in use by workmen in Oxford].

1851 [implied in: T. H. Turner Some Acct. Domest. Archit. I. 25 The wages of workmen.., as..mud-plasterers, torchers, excavators, and barrow-men. (at torcher n.²)].

1882 Ogilvie's Imperial Dict. (new ed.)

1895 Jrnl. Royal Inst. Brit. Archit. 14 Mar. 351 The roof should be torched—not bedded.