torch🔊

(burning stick) A stick of wood or plant fibres twisted together, with one end soaked in a flammable substance such as resin or tallow and set on fire, which is held in the hand, put into a wall bracket, or stuck into the ground, and used chiefly as a light source.

(by extension) A similarly shaped implement with a replaceable supply of flammable material; specifically, a pole with a lamp at one end.

(flashlight)(Commonwealth) ''In full'' electric torch: (nocap=1)

(botany)

A flower which is red or red-orange in colour like a flame.

A (t=kind of inflorescence) made up of spikelets.

(common mullein)(in the plural) The common mullein, great mullein, or torchwort ((species)).

(obsolete) A cactus with a very elongated body; a ceroid cactus; a torch cactus or torch-thistle.

(figurative)

A source of enlightenment or guidance.

(pass on the torch) ''In'' carry,'' hand on, or'' pass on the torch: a precious cause, principle, tradition, etc., which needs to be protected and transmitted to others.

(science fiction) (t=a spacecraft engine which produces thrust by nuclear fusion)

(US) (t=a tool which projects a controlled stream of a highly flammable gas over a spark in order to produce a controlled flame)

(slang) An arsonist.

(transitive)

To illuminate or provide (a place) with torches ''(noun (burning stick))''.

(slang) To set fire to (something), especially by use of a torch; specifically, to intentionally destroy (something) by setting on fire to try and claim compensation on a fire insurance.

(figurative) To make damaging claims about (someone or something); to ruin the reputation of (someone or something); to disparage, to insult.

(intransitive)

Of a fire: to burn.

(science fiction) To travel in a spacecraft propelled by a (t=an engine which produces thrust by nuclear fusion).

(figurative) To (appear to) flare up like a torch.

(fishing) To catch fish or other aquatic animals by torchlight; to go torch-fishing.

(historical) To (t=fill up and bring to a smooth finish) (inside joints of slates laid on laths) using lime hair mortar.