torch

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.

The mob of angry villagers carried torches and pitchforks to the vampire’s castle.

Đồng nghĩa: brand, firebrand, flambeau

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

(broadly)A spike (“kind of inflorescence”) made up of spikelets.

(broadly, in plural)The common mullein, great mullein, or torchwort (Verbascum thapsus).

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

(figuratively)A source of enlightenment or guidance.

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

(abbreviation, alt of, ellipsis)(science fiction) Ellipsis of torch drive (“a spacecraft engine which produces thrust by nuclear fusion”).

(Canada, US, abbreviation, alt of, ellipsis)(chiefly Canada, US) Ellipsis of blowtorch (“a tool which projects a controlled stream of a highly flammable gas over a spark in order to produce a controlled flame”).

(US, slang)An arsonist.

(transitive)To illuminate or provide (a place) with torches (noun etymology 1, noun sense 1).

(informal, transitive)To intentionally destroy (something) by setting it on fire, especially when committing arson in furtherance of some other criminal act (e.g. insurance fraud or the destruction of evidence).

Some hoodlums had torched a derelict automobile, which emitted a ghastly pall of thick, black smoke that filled the street.

Đồng nghĩa: burn, ignite, inflame, set ablaze, aflame, alight, conflagrate, fire, fire up, ignite, inflame, kindle, light, light up, set ablaze, set afire, set aflame, set alight, set fire, set on fire, torch

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

That influencer torched the company’s PR department.

Đồng nghĩa: burn, malign, assassinate, asperse, backbite, badmouth, befoul, belibel, besmirch, besmear, bewray, blacken, blame, blaze, blemish, blot, blur, calumniate, calumny, chat shit, chat shite, cloud, defame, demonize, denigrate, deprave, depreciate, detract, dirty, discredit, disgrace, disparage, disrepute, diss, drag through the mud, forgab, forspeak, foul, infamize, lampoon, libel, malign, monsterize, muddy, reproach, revile, scandal, shit-talk, slag, slander, smear, smirch, spatter, spot, speak ill of, stab, stain, sully, talk shit, talk shite, talk trash, tarnish, torch, traduce, trash-talk, unflatter, vilify, vilipend, villainize, wrong

(intransitive)Of a fire: to burn.

The flames torched up twenty feet in the air.

Đồng nghĩa: combust, go up, burn, combust, forburn, go up, outburn, torch

(intransitive)To travel in a spacecraft propelled by a torch drive (“an engine which produces thrust by nuclear fusion”).

(UK, dialectal, figuratively, intransitive)To (appear to) flare up like a torch.

Đồng nghĩa: blaze up, flare up

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

(archaic, historical, transitive)(transitive, masonry, archaic or historical) To point (“fill up and bring to a smooth finish”) (inside joints of slates laid on laths) using lime hair mortar.