noun

• 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.
  "Eleven days before the start of the [modern Olympic] Games, a flaming torch is ignited by the sun in Olympia at the ruins of the ancient Temple of Zeus. With that flame, relay runners lighted torches one from the other and carry it to the opening of the Games. Ever since 1936, the Summer Olympics has had its fire-font lit by a relay torch ignited at Olympia."
• 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.
  "Ernst slipped and dropped his torch on the flagstones, shattering the bulb and plunging us into darkness."
• (by extension, botany)
• (by extension, botany)
  "Of this kinde, there is founde an other, the Spikes, eares, or torches wherof, are very dubble, ſo as in euery Spyky eare, in ſteede of the little knappes or heades, it bringeth forth a number of other ſmal torches, wherof eche one is lyke to the ſpike or torch of great Plantayne."

verb

• (transitive)
• (transitive)
  "Some hoodlums had torched a derelict automobile, which emitted a ghastly pall of thick, black smoke that filled the street."
• (transitive)
  "That influencer torched the company’s PR department."
• (intransitive)
  "The flames torched up twenty feet in the air."

verb

• (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.