often attributive
1
: a burning stick of resinous wood or twist of tow used to give light and usually carried in the hand : flambeau
2
: something (such as tradition, wisdom, or knowledge) likened to a torch as giving light or guidance
pass the torch to the next generation
3
: any of various portable devices for emitting an unusually hot flame compare blowtorch
4
chiefly British
: flashlight sense 1
torched; torching; torches
: to set fire to with or as if with a torch
Synonyms
Examples of torch in a Sentence
Noun
several suspicious fires in the past few months have probably been set by the same torch
Verb
An arsonist torched the building.
police suspect that the owner torched the house for the insurance money
Recent Examples on the Web
Ava Wallace, Washington Post, 1 July 2024
President Kennedy’s daughter Caroline Kennedy, who is now the ambassador to Australia, is quietly grooming her son Jack Schlossberg, 31, to pick up the Kennedy torch for a new generation of voters.
—Richard Johnson, New York Daily News, 30 June 2024
Camila Pedrosa, Sacramento Bee, 27 June 2024
Two Northern California blazes that ignited Monday spread extremely quickly — as the Corral Fire had — torching nearly 5,000 acres in a matter of hours.
—Jason Green, The Mercury News, 18 June 2024
See all Example Sentences for torch 
Noun
The 26-year-old, who plays for Japan, plans to return after lighting the torch as a star of the Tokyo Games.
—Ava Wallace, Washington Post, 1 July 2024
President Kennedy’s daughter Caroline Kennedy, who is now the ambassador to Australia, is quietly grooming her son Jack Schlossberg, 31, to pick up the Kennedy torch for a new generation of voters.
—Richard Johnson, New York Daily News, 30 June 2024
Verb
Over a dozen single-family homes have been torched by this week’s Apache Fire, burning near Palermo in Butte County, officials say.
—Camila Pedrosa, Sacramento Bee, 27 June 2024
Two Northern California blazes that ignited Monday spread extremely quickly — as the Corral Fire had — torching nearly 5,000 acres in a matter of hours.
—Jason Green, The Mercury News, 18 June 2024
See all Example Sentences for torch
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'torch.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Dictionary Entries Near torch
Cite this Entry
“Torch.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/torch. Accessed 15 Jul. 2024.
Copy CitationMedical Definition
TORCH
noun
: a group of pathological agents that cause similar symptoms in newborns and that include especially a toxoplasma (Toxoplasma gonii), cytomegalovirus, herpes simplex virus, and the togavirus causing German measles
Etymology
Noun
toxoplasma, rubella virus, cytomegalovirus, herpes simplex virus
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