| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000. |
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| torch |
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| PRONUNCIATION: |  tôrch |
| NOUN: | 1a. 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. b. Chiefly British A flashlight. 2. Something that serves to illuminate, enlighten, or guide. 3. Slang An arsonist. 4. A portable apparatus that produces a very hot flame by the combustion of gases, used in welding and construction. | | TRANSITIVE VERB: | Inflected forms: torched, torch·ing, torch·es
Slang To cause to burn or undergo combustion, especially with extraordinary rapidity, force, or thoroughness. | | ETYMOLOGY: | Middle English torche, from Old French, from Vulgar Latin *torca, alteration of Latin torqua, variant of torqu s, torque, from Latin torqure, to twist. See terkw- in Appendix I.
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| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
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