| 释义 |
Definition of torch in English: torchnoun tɔːtʃtɔrtʃ 1British A portable battery-powered electric lamp. North American term flashlight (sense 1) Example sentencesExamples - The characters are mostly in modern dress, but still fight with swords, even while lighting their way with battery-powered torches.
- I also took lots of matches, in case we ran out, and an electric torch.
- They advise households to have on hand a torch, battery-powered radio, ready-to-eat food, bottled water and blankets.
- They expect to be underground for several days and are taking more than a hundred batteries to power their torches.
- The public should stock up on tinned food, bottled water and have a battery-powered torch and radio, the Home Office advised last night.
- With temperatures below zero and icy roads many people were unable to get into the village for supplies of candles, batteries for torches etc.
- The batteries in our torch expired and we hadn't any candles.
- Kingston shoppers took heed of advice given on the Home Office website last week to stockpile battery-powered torches, radios, food and bottled water.
- Retailer Radio Shack said it was also seeing increased demand for two-way radios, emergency batteries and torches.
- If a group of boys was reportedly disappeared carrying candles, threads and electric torches, they would certainly be found in the dripping caves.
- Electricity showrooms in the borough were swamped with calls about the scheduled power cuts and at the same time coped with a booming demand for torches, lamps and batteries.
- I've got some new batteries for my torch and as soon as it's dark enough, I'll be out in the garden…
- Why did the male chorus have huge electric torches that they shone out over the audience?
- It looked impressive, but the light from the battery-operated torch bulb-lit lanterns could have been brighter to enable them to stand out better in the darkness.
- The British Home Office has issued advice to households to stock up on bottled water, tinned food, torches and a battery powered radio.
- The small, plastic yellow gun is powered by a battery, includes a torch to light up the target and almost looks like a child's toy.
- Presentation College lit an electrical torch across the border last week when they started a project with a school in Ballymena.
- Whipped by heavy rain, hundreds of police, military and civilian workers used shovels and electric torches to comb through the smoking wreckage.
- Finding people was almost impossible, it was dark by this point, though the street lamps and people's torches were illuminating things unevenly.
- There are no batteries for electrical instruments like torches, ophthalmoscopes and laryngoscopes.
Synonyms lamp, light, flashlight, beacon rare illuminant, flambeau - 1.1historical A portable means of illumination such as a piece of wood or cloth soaked in tallow and ignited, sometimes carried ceremonially.
Example sentencesExamples - The ogoh-ogoh, escorted by groups of people carrying bamboo torches and a loud gamelan ensemble, are paraded on the night before Nyepi.
- The colourful cloth and the cardboard piece that symbolised the torch of the statue made the model look appealing.
- Eight o'clock at night in the alpine darkness and we had just skied a frozen slope carrying flaming torches to light the way.
- Flashlights and torches provide just enough illumination to see the creatures in all their oddness.
- He also choreographed the dance piece for the ceremony of lighting the torch at the courthouse steps and later in Dublin at the Point Depot.
- They were led downward by a high position royal guard carrying a torch to light the way.
- Observe the gleam of the soldiers' swords by the light of the torches used for illumination and setting villages ablaze.
- We took off our sandals, and two of the bissu carried burning torches to light our way.
- A small table sat in the middle of a dimly lit room, candles and torches providing barely enough illumination for the six seated men to see.
- In Patan and Bhaktapur, the students marched in the streets carrying torches symbolizing violence, according to witnesses.
- In pre-strike protests Saturday, students ignored government orders not to march in streets carrying burning torches.
- Without another word or look, Michael grabbed one of the pieces of wood and made a torch out of it.
- The moon helped out by shining brightly, while the 70 visitors carried torches and lanterns.
- Both bore two torches made of grease-soaked cloth wrapped around long slivers of wood.
- When one diver climbed up to the top of the 25-metre tower, he was ignited by a torch and was covered instantly in flames.
- Caroline and Sara went down into the vault with Talmegar leading the way, carrying a torch with which he lit the other torches along the wall.
- Several of them carried burning torches and I had a flash of old horror films, the mob of villagers going after the mad scientist and his monster.
- As a police helicopter thundered overhead, many of the demonstrators carried flaming torches and sounded klaxons and blew horns to make their point.
- He seemed to be in some kind of cave, the light coming from torches carried by hooded figures in dark robes.
- In celebration of the centenary year of the school, past prefects carrying Olympic torches will run from school to the stadium.
Synonyms firebrand, brand lantern, candle, taper historical link, cresset - 1.2in singular Used to refer to a valuable quality, principle, or cause, which needs to be protected and maintained.
mountain warlords carried the torch of Greek independence Example sentencesExamples - He is married with four children, one of whom, Zoe, has picked up the educational torch and is now a teacher in Chiseldon.
- DJ's got a baseball game, so I expect the other coalition members to carry the torch while I'm gone.
- Deller's theme is that the values of all fundamental religions are essentially materialistic, which leaves art carrying the torch for the spiritually minded.
- Once a year we pay homage to those who have served and especially those who have fallen, but do we really understand what it means to keep the faith or to take the torch from failing hands?
- With only a little more than a year in the Army Reserve, Baker has now become the bearer of the military service torch in his family.
- Others view Poland as the suffering Christ among nations raising the torch of liberty and independence for themselves and others.
- She not only carried the torch of educating young women, but she passed it on.
- It's the same story across Canada, where now and always, the junior leagues carry the torch for the spirit of hockey in small towns and big cities alike.
- Picking up the torch of the golden age, the CFL proves that a sports league where no one is in it for the money can thrive in an entertainment-jaded age.
- By August 31st, this important literary torch will pass from poet to poet.
2North American A blowlamp. Example sentencesExamples - Armed with pitch forks, torches, and stakes; the men planned to overwhelm the vampire until he was struck down.
- In addition to this, wire cutters, torches, chainsaws, axes, etc. can come in handy.
- Stonefist had armed himself with throwing axes, his battleaxe, a torch, and a tower shield.
3US informal An arsonist.
verb tɔːtʃtɔrtʃ [with object]informal Set fire to. the shops had been looted and torched Example sentencesExamples - A man accused of conspiring to murder a security guard was later seen suffering facial burns in line with having torched a car, a jury heard.
- By 5pm that day, after Mayday calls went unanswered, they were forced to abandon ship, torching the wheelhouse as a last-ditch smoke signal and praying it would be seen.
- Later, it was torched by an angry critic who, having set light to the structure, could not escape, and died in the flames he had lit.
- Of course, normally we don't go around torching automobiles, because the owners of those automobiles would be angry, and we would be arrested, and our friends would look at us funny.
- Mainstream media reports have tended to emphasise the violence of protesters, highlighting images of masked men smashing windows, throwing rocks and torching cars.
- Small numbers of music fans set fire to tents, but organisers insisted people had only torched their own belongings.
- I teach the same groups how to light fires - kids who may have torched vehicles often don't know how to keep a real fire going.
- Then, in 1993, she was caught in the act of torching a neighbor's home in Ajo, Arizona, and sentenced to 15 years in prison.
- A Ste Anne-area man convicted of torching his own property nearly a year ago is taking his insurance company to court, claiming it has treated him unfairly.
- Those near the gates were torched by the rain of fire that came from the explosion.
- Billy wasted no time in firing off the main cannon, and torching the Pirate ship.
- There were also reports of indiscriminate firing by suspected militants for almost 20 minutes after torching the Dimasa dominated village.
- The expense would be the equivalent of getting a brand new car and just torching it.
- The car behind the fire station used for training purposes was torched around 1pm.
- Rioters are torching businesses, and cars, and trucks.
- Her sister's car was also torched in nearby Nunthorpe Gardens during the fire spree last week.
- Then guerrillas stormed the station, killing 16 policemen, looting weapons, releasing detainees and torching several cars.
- A chef from Chippenham could face a jail term after torching the car of his ex-partner's new lover and threatening to kill him.
- Hundreds of Shi'ite youths set fire to two police vehicles and a petrol station outside the mosque and then ransacked two government offices, stealing furniture and torching it at a traffic intersection.
- A hard lesson for new film-makers to learn is that when you've got style to burn, you might just end up torching other important stuff if you aren't careful.
Synonyms burn, set fire to, set on fire, set light to, set alight, incinerate, ignite, kindle, put/set a match to, light, start, touch off reduce to ashes, destroy by fire
Phrases Suffer from unrequited love for. he was carrying a torch for the local strawberry blonde Example sentencesExamples - I can really relate to the title character, as I know what it's like to carry a torch for someone and have those affections go unrequited.
- But while the old peace movement carried a torch for Britain, today's protesters are defined by their lack of faith in Britain's political leaders and institutions.
- Old flames often have a way of reappearing just when you're carrying a torch for someone new.
- Just as he still carries a torch for the gladioli-strewing hero of his adolescence, Maxwell doesn't quite seem ready to grow up.
- Catherine discovers she still carries a torch for her old love, but that's only one of the complications as Catherine deals with past hurts and potential romance.
- Maybe the mother still carries a torch for her child's father and is jealous of his new woman.
- As it turns out, Aaron wasn't the only person to have been carrying a torch for Laura.
- John continued to carry a torch for my mom, though, even three years into her marriage, and after I was born.
- A few months later I fell in love with this friend and carried a torch for him for years, but he would never have me (the nerve).
- The midfielder is not exactly carrying a torch for his old manager but, for all the woe in his time in Scotland, he says he was a fan and still is.
- Nowadays, those who still carry a torch for this composer cut down in his prime fondly call him SCT.
- English poet Wordsworth carried a torch for his sister Dorothy.
- A secret asset of New York City is that it houses thousands of sweet people who carry a torch for classic pop culture; they are curators by vocation if not by career.
- Because you're literally and figuratively always carrying a torch for me, silly.
- Will's fiancée Fi still loves him, but has taken up with Rob, an American soldier; Henry, we soon realise, also carries a torch for Fi.
- Throughout the series, Carrie carries a torch for the smoothly elegant, rich, and powerful businessman, but he is a man who ‘won't commit.’
- I will always carry a torch for classy early 80s shop-girl funk like this.
- Bulloch's time may be up with Scotland, but he plans to continue carrying a torch for the national game.
- He knew that Steven still carried a torch for his former love.
- I carried a torch for that guy for years and should he read this he would know who he is!
put to the torch (or put a torch to) heretics were put to the torch Example sentencesExamples - It went up in smoke when the Bounty was put to the torch.
- Their dwellings, all their possessions, their families, their gods, everything was put to the torch.
- All of Kirribilli might, in passing, be put to the torch as enraged tree-worshippers marched on the council chambers.
- Some believe that a new ship will spontaneously spring to life when the old one is put to the torch.
- Churches and mosques have been put to the torch.
- The guests examined the narcotics and tested the heroin with chemical-testing kits before the drugs were put to the torch.
- Following the battle of Clonegal which was fought on July 29, 1650, the houses on both sides of the street were put to the torch and the homes of Moyacomb Meadow are the first houses to have been built there since.
- Your ancestors were put to the torch and burnt in the name of the Lord.
- This small village, like so much of the Duchy, has been put to the torch as recently as a couple years ago, perhaps sooner.
- Camulodunum, which had yet to receive defences, was overwhelmed, and put to the torch.
- A few villagers attempted to battle the invaders with old swords or axes that had hung upon the walls of their homes, homes that were even now being put to the torch.
- You wanted to take a break in 2019 to save your damnable American Constitution from being put to the torch by Ali's legions.
- Once you've put a torch to something you've put firescale on it and will have to remove it in a ‘pickle bath.’
- Not so long ago they watched a neighbouring farm being put to the torch.
- The walls of Carthage were torn down, the city put to the torch.
Origin Middle English: from Old French torche, from Latin torqua, variant of torques 'necklace, wreath', from torquere 'to twist'. The current verb sense was originally US slang and dates from the 1930s. A torch in the original sense of ‘something soaked in an inflammable substance used to give light’ was often made of twisted hemp or other fibres. This is still the American meaning, and reflects the word's Latin origin, torquere ‘to twist’. Only in British English can torch describe a battery-powered electric lamp, which Americans call a flashlight. A torch song is a sad or sentimental song of unrequited love, whose name, used since the 1920s, comes from the phrase carry a torch for, ‘to love someone who does not love you in return’. The image in pass on the torch, ‘to pass on a tradition, especially one of learning or enlightenment’, is that of the runners in a relay race passing on the torch to each other, as was the custom in the ancient Greek Olympic Games. The Latin source of torch, torquere, is found in a large number of other English words. Most obviously it is the source of the engineer's torque (late 19th century), and the twisted Celtic neck-ring the torc (mid 19th century). Less obviously it is in contort (Late Middle English) ‘twist together’; distort (Late Middle English) ‘twist out of shape’; extort (early 16th century) ‘twist out of’; and retort (Late Middle English) ‘to twist back’ (the chemical apparatus gets its name from its twisted shape). Tortura ‘twisting, torment’ the Latin noun formed from the verb gives us torture and tortuous (both LME), and torment (Middle English). Thwart (Middle English) is an Old Norse word that goes back to the same Indo-European root.
Rhymes debauch, nautch, porch, scorch Definition of torch in US English: torchnountôrCHtɔrtʃ 1historical A portable means of illumination such as a piece of wood or cloth soaked in tallow or an oil lamp on a pole, sometimes carried ceremonially. Example sentencesExamples - When one diver climbed up to the top of the 25-metre tower, he was ignited by a torch and was covered instantly in flames.
- Eight o'clock at night in the alpine darkness and we had just skied a frozen slope carrying flaming torches to light the way.
- He seemed to be in some kind of cave, the light coming from torches carried by hooded figures in dark robes.
- In Patan and Bhaktapur, the students marched in the streets carrying torches symbolizing violence, according to witnesses.
- We took off our sandals, and two of the bissu carried burning torches to light our way.
- They were led downward by a high position royal guard carrying a torch to light the way.
- Both bore two torches made of grease-soaked cloth wrapped around long slivers of wood.
- In pre-strike protests Saturday, students ignored government orders not to march in streets carrying burning torches.
- Several of them carried burning torches and I had a flash of old horror films, the mob of villagers going after the mad scientist and his monster.
- The moon helped out by shining brightly, while the 70 visitors carried torches and lanterns.
- Observe the gleam of the soldiers' swords by the light of the torches used for illumination and setting villages ablaze.
- He also choreographed the dance piece for the ceremony of lighting the torch at the courthouse steps and later in Dublin at the Point Depot.
- Flashlights and torches provide just enough illumination to see the creatures in all their oddness.
- A small table sat in the middle of a dimly lit room, candles and torches providing barely enough illumination for the six seated men to see.
- Caroline and Sara went down into the vault with Talmegar leading the way, carrying a torch with which he lit the other torches along the wall.
- As a police helicopter thundered overhead, many of the demonstrators carried flaming torches and sounded klaxons and blew horns to make their point.
- The ogoh-ogoh, escorted by groups of people carrying bamboo torches and a loud gamelan ensemble, are paraded on the night before Nyepi.
- In celebration of the centenary year of the school, past prefects carrying Olympic torches will run from school to the stadium.
- The colourful cloth and the cardboard piece that symbolised the torch of the statue made the model look appealing.
- Without another word or look, Michael grabbed one of the pieces of wood and made a torch out of it.
- 1.1usually the torch Used to refer to a valuable quality, principle, or cause that needs to be protected and maintained.
mountain warlords carried the torch of Greek independence Example sentencesExamples - DJ's got a baseball game, so I expect the other coalition members to carry the torch while I'm gone.
- Once a year we pay homage to those who have served and especially those who have fallen, but do we really understand what it means to keep the faith or to take the torch from failing hands?
- Others view Poland as the suffering Christ among nations raising the torch of liberty and independence for themselves and others.
- He is married with four children, one of whom, Zoe, has picked up the educational torch and is now a teacher in Chiseldon.
- Picking up the torch of the golden age, the CFL proves that a sports league where no one is in it for the money can thrive in an entertainment-jaded age.
- It's the same story across Canada, where now and always, the junior leagues carry the torch for the spirit of hockey in small towns and big cities alike.
- By August 31st, this important literary torch will pass from poet to poet.
- With only a little more than a year in the Army Reserve, Baker has now become the bearer of the military service torch in his family.
- Deller's theme is that the values of all fundamental religions are essentially materialistic, which leaves art carrying the torch for the spiritually minded.
- She not only carried the torch of educating young women, but she passed it on.
- 1.2North American A blowtorch.
Example sentencesExamples - The oxygen fuel gas-cutting torch is most often used for this application.
- As a finishing touch, Dufault ‘flame polishes’ the edges of acrylic using a small, butane torch.
- Sprinkle with sugar, using a hand-held propane torch, caramelize the sugar, and set aside.
- Don't use a belt-sander, propane torch, dry scraper, or dry sandpaper on painted surfaces that may contain lead.
- He made some kind of signal, and in walked the King, weighing in at 270 pounds, and sparkling like a welder's torch at work.
- She said as she fished out of her flight jacket a small cutting torch.
- 1.3US informal An arsonist.
2British A portable battery-operated electric lamp; a flashlight. Example sentencesExamples - I've got some new batteries for my torch and as soon as it's dark enough, I'll be out in the garden…
- Electricity showrooms in the borough were swamped with calls about the scheduled power cuts and at the same time coped with a booming demand for torches, lamps and batteries.
- Finding people was almost impossible, it was dark by this point, though the street lamps and people's torches were illuminating things unevenly.
- The small, plastic yellow gun is powered by a battery, includes a torch to light up the target and almost looks like a child's toy.
- It looked impressive, but the light from the battery-operated torch bulb-lit lanterns could have been brighter to enable them to stand out better in the darkness.
- They expect to be underground for several days and are taking more than a hundred batteries to power their torches.
- Whipped by heavy rain, hundreds of police, military and civilian workers used shovels and electric torches to comb through the smoking wreckage.
- Why did the male chorus have huge electric torches that they shone out over the audience?
- With temperatures below zero and icy roads many people were unable to get into the village for supplies of candles, batteries for torches etc.
- There are no batteries for electrical instruments like torches, ophthalmoscopes and laryngoscopes.
- They advise households to have on hand a torch, battery-powered radio, ready-to-eat food, bottled water and blankets.
- The British Home Office has issued advice to households to stock up on bottled water, tinned food, torches and a battery powered radio.
- The public should stock up on tinned food, bottled water and have a battery-powered torch and radio, the Home Office advised last night.
- I also took lots of matches, in case we ran out, and an electric torch.
- Presentation College lit an electrical torch across the border last week when they started a project with a school in Ballymena.
- Retailer Radio Shack said it was also seeing increased demand for two-way radios, emergency batteries and torches.
- Kingston shoppers took heed of advice given on the Home Office website last week to stockpile battery-powered torches, radios, food and bottled water.
- If a group of boys was reportedly disappeared carrying candles, threads and electric torches, they would certainly be found in the dripping caves.
- The batteries in our torch expired and we hadn't any candles.
- The characters are mostly in modern dress, but still fight with swords, even while lighting their way with battery-powered torches.
Synonyms lamp, light, flashlight, beacon
verbtôrCHtɔrtʃ [with object]informal Set fire to. the shops had been looted and torched Example sentencesExamples - Rioters are torching businesses, and cars, and trucks.
- The expense would be the equivalent of getting a brand new car and just torching it.
- Those near the gates were torched by the rain of fire that came from the explosion.
- Then, in 1993, she was caught in the act of torching a neighbor's home in Ajo, Arizona, and sentenced to 15 years in prison.
- Small numbers of music fans set fire to tents, but organisers insisted people had only torched their own belongings.
- Her sister's car was also torched in nearby Nunthorpe Gardens during the fire spree last week.
- Later, it was torched by an angry critic who, having set light to the structure, could not escape, and died in the flames he had lit.
- Mainstream media reports have tended to emphasise the violence of protesters, highlighting images of masked men smashing windows, throwing rocks and torching cars.
- A Ste Anne-area man convicted of torching his own property nearly a year ago is taking his insurance company to court, claiming it has treated him unfairly.
- Then guerrillas stormed the station, killing 16 policemen, looting weapons, releasing detainees and torching several cars.
- A man accused of conspiring to murder a security guard was later seen suffering facial burns in line with having torched a car, a jury heard.
- Of course, normally we don't go around torching automobiles, because the owners of those automobiles would be angry, and we would be arrested, and our friends would look at us funny.
- A chef from Chippenham could face a jail term after torching the car of his ex-partner's new lover and threatening to kill him.
- I teach the same groups how to light fires - kids who may have torched vehicles often don't know how to keep a real fire going.
- There were also reports of indiscriminate firing by suspected militants for almost 20 minutes after torching the Dimasa dominated village.
- By 5pm that day, after Mayday calls went unanswered, they were forced to abandon ship, torching the wheelhouse as a last-ditch smoke signal and praying it would be seen.
- The car behind the fire station used for training purposes was torched around 1pm.
- Hundreds of Shi'ite youths set fire to two police vehicles and a petrol station outside the mosque and then ransacked two government offices, stealing furniture and torching it at a traffic intersection.
- A hard lesson for new film-makers to learn is that when you've got style to burn, you might just end up torching other important stuff if you aren't careful.
- Billy wasted no time in firing off the main cannon, and torching the Pirate ship.
Synonyms burn, set fire to, set on fire, set light to, set alight, incinerate, ignite, kindle, put a match to, set a match to, light, start, touch off
Phrases Suffer from unrequited love for. Example sentencesExamples - Because you're literally and figuratively always carrying a torch for me, silly.
- He knew that Steven still carried a torch for his former love.
- I can really relate to the title character, as I know what it's like to carry a torch for someone and have those affections go unrequited.
- Will's fiancée Fi still loves him, but has taken up with Rob, an American soldier; Henry, we soon realise, also carries a torch for Fi.
- Old flames often have a way of reappearing just when you're carrying a torch for someone new.
- But while the old peace movement carried a torch for Britain, today's protesters are defined by their lack of faith in Britain's political leaders and institutions.
- I will always carry a torch for classy early 80s shop-girl funk like this.
- Nowadays, those who still carry a torch for this composer cut down in his prime fondly call him SCT.
- English poet Wordsworth carried a torch for his sister Dorothy.
- The midfielder is not exactly carrying a torch for his old manager but, for all the woe in his time in Scotland, he says he was a fan and still is.
- John continued to carry a torch for my mom, though, even three years into her marriage, and after I was born.
- I carried a torch for that guy for years and should he read this he would know who he is!
- A secret asset of New York City is that it houses thousands of sweet people who carry a torch for classic pop culture; they are curators by vocation if not by career.
- Catherine discovers she still carries a torch for her old love, but that's only one of the complications as Catherine deals with past hurts and potential romance.
- Bulloch's time may be up with Scotland, but he plans to continue carrying a torch for the national game.
- A few months later I fell in love with this friend and carried a torch for him for years, but he would never have me (the nerve).
- Maybe the mother still carries a torch for her child's father and is jealous of his new woman.
- As it turns out, Aaron wasn't the only person to have been carrying a torch for Laura.
- Throughout the series, Carrie carries a torch for the smoothly elegant, rich, and powerful businessman, but he is a man who ‘won't commit.’
- Just as he still carries a torch for the gladioli-strewing hero of his adolescence, Maxwell doesn't quite seem ready to grow up.
put to the torch (or put a torch to) Example sentencesExamples - Not so long ago they watched a neighbouring farm being put to the torch.
- Some believe that a new ship will spontaneously spring to life when the old one is put to the torch.
- Churches and mosques have been put to the torch.
- A few villagers attempted to battle the invaders with old swords or axes that had hung upon the walls of their homes, homes that were even now being put to the torch.
- All of Kirribilli might, in passing, be put to the torch as enraged tree-worshippers marched on the council chambers.
- This small village, like so much of the Duchy, has been put to the torch as recently as a couple years ago, perhaps sooner.
- Once you've put a torch to something you've put firescale on it and will have to remove it in a ‘pickle bath.’
- It went up in smoke when the Bounty was put to the torch.
- Camulodunum, which had yet to receive defences, was overwhelmed, and put to the torch.
- Following the battle of Clonegal which was fought on July 29, 1650, the houses on both sides of the street were put to the torch and the homes of Moyacomb Meadow are the first houses to have been built there since.
- Their dwellings, all their possessions, their families, their gods, everything was put to the torch.
- Your ancestors were put to the torch and burnt in the name of the Lord.
- The guests examined the narcotics and tested the heroin with chemical-testing kits before the drugs were put to the torch.
- The walls of Carthage were torn down, the city put to the torch.
- You wanted to take a break in 2019 to save your damnable American Constitution from being put to the torch by Ali's legions.
Origin Middle English: from Old French torche, from Latin torqua, variant of torques ‘necklace, wreath’, from torquere ‘to twist’. The current verb sense was originally US slang and dates from the 1930s. |