From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishtorchtorch1 /tɔːtʃ $ tɔːrtʃ/ ●●○ noun [countable] 1 
British EnglishTEE a small electric lamp that you carry in your hand SYN flashlight American English We shone our torches around the cavern.2 DLOa long stick with burning material at one end that produces light the Olympic torch3 → carry a torch for somebody
British EnglishTEE a small electric lamp that you carry in your hand SYN flashlight American English We shone our torches around the cavern.2 DLOa long stick with burning material at one end that produces light the Olympic torch3 → carry a torch for somebodyExamples from the Corpus
torch• It was a photo of a robed woman with a sharp star for a halo and a torch in her upraised hand.• After a cursory check, Myeloski went off to talk to the guard at the gate and find a torch.• Ipuky's confession had lit a bright torch in the dark labyrinth of his investigation.• If he ever guessed that she carried this stupid, hopeless torch for him, he would ... what?• Down below, he could see the single torch beam which illuminated Devlin, the girl and Gilbert.• Working on the torch principle the gun became a simple projector.torchtorch2 verb [transitive] informalSCCBURN to deliberately make a building, vehicle etc start to burn Rioters torched several abandoned cars.→ See Verb tableExamples from the Corpus
torch• He found himself before the emperor a second time, after torching a pagan idol; his punishment was a severe flogging.• We see him move slowly through the ranks, from fencing stolen goods to torching ailing business interests.• Torrents of lava would not tumble out to force fire down his throat, torch his tongue.• Bunny threatened to chainsaw the flat in Muswell Hill and torch the goldfish, although maybe it was the other way round.• It looked to me like someone had torched the place.• Thibault was caught torching the restaurant.Origin torch1 (1200-1300) Old French torche “bunch of twisted straws, torch”, from Vulgar Latin torca 