torch

Fetched 2026-10-27 (live).

Synonyms: touch, porch, torah, torc, orch, lorch, corch, torcs, zorch, storch, toch

Antonyms: touch, porch, torah, torc, orch, lorch, corch, torcs, zorch, storch, toch

Related words from Datamuse; suggestions, not definitions.

Noun

1. 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.
   • Ernst slipped and dropped his torch on the flagstones, shattering the bulb and plunging us into darkness.
2. A similarly shaped implement with a replaceable supply of flammable material; specifically, a pole with a lamp at one end.
3. Ellipsis of electric torch: synonym of flashlight (“a battery-powered hand-held light source”).
   • Ernst slipped and dropped his torch on the flagstones, shattering the bulb and plunging us into darkness.
4. A flower which is red or red-orange in colour like a flame. A spike (“kind of inflorescence”) made up of spikelets. The common mullein, great mullein, or torchwort (Verbascum thapsus). A cactus with a very elongated body; a ceroid cactus; a torch cactus or torch-thistle.
5. A flower which is red or red-orange in colour like a flame.
6. A spike (“kind of inflorescence”) made up of spikelets.
7. The common mullein, great mullein, or torchwort (Verbascum thapsus).
8. A cactus with a very elongated body; a ceroid cactus; a torch cactus or torch-thistle.
9. A source of enlightenment or guidance. 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.
10. A source of enlightenment or guidance.
11. 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.
12. Ellipsis of torch drive (“a spacecraft engine which produces thrust by nuclear fusion”).
13. 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”).
14. An arsonist.

Verb

1. To illuminate or provide (a place) with torches (noun etymology 1, noun sense 1). 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.
   • That influencer torched the company’s PR department.
2. To illuminate or provide (a place) with torches (noun etymology 1, noun sense 1).
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. Of a fire: to burn.
   • The flames torched up twenty feet in the air.
6. Of a fire: to burn.
   • The flames torched up twenty feet in the air.
7. To travel in a spacecraft propelled by a torch drive (“an engine which produces thrust by nuclear fusion”).
8. To (appear to) flare up like a torch.
9. To catch fish or other aquatic animals by torchlight; to go torch-fishing.

Verb

1. To point (“fill up and bring to a smooth finish”) (inside joints of slates laid on laths) using lime hair mortar.

Source: Wiktionary · CC BY-SA 3.0 (Wiktionary) · cached copy, not a rewrite.