torrent
English
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈtɒɹ.ənt/
- (General American) IPA(key): /ˈtɔɹ.ənt/
- (NYC) IPA(key): /ˈtɑɹ.ənt/
Audio (US) (file) - Rhymes: (Received Pronunciation) -ɒɹənt, (General American) -ɔɹənt, (NYC) -ɑɹənt
Etymology 1
Borrowed from French torrent, from Italian torrente, from Latin torrentem, accusative of torrēns (“burning, seething, roaring”), from Latin torrēre (“to parch, scorch”).
Noun
torrent (plural torrents)
- A violent flow, as of water, lava, etc.; a stream suddenly raised and running rapidly, as down a precipice.
- Rain fell on the hills in torrents.
- A torrent of green and white water broke over the hull of the sail-boat.
- 1841 September 28, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, “[Miscellaneous.] Excelsior.”, in Ballads and Other Poems, 2nd edition, Cambridge, Mass.: […] John Owen, published 1842, OCLC 978271908, stanza 4, page 130:
- "Try not the Pass!" the old man said; / "Dark lowers the tempest overhead, / The roaring torrent is deep and wide!" / And loud that clarion voice replied / Excelsior!
- 2013 June 29, “High and wet”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8842, page 28:
- Floods in northern India, mostly in the small state of Uttarakhand, have wrought disaster on an enormous scale. […] Rock-filled torrents smashed vehicles and homes, burying victims under rubble and sludge.
- (figuratively) A large amount or stream of something.
- They endured a torrent of inquiries.
- 1906 August, Alfred Noyes, “The Highwayman”, in Poems, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., published October 1906, OCLC 28569419, part 1, stanza I, page 45:
- The wind was a torrent of darkness among the gusty trees, / The moon was a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas, / The road was a ribbon of moonlight over the purple moor, / And the highwayman came riding— / Riding—riding— / The highwayman came riding, up to the old inn-door.
- 1907, E.M. Forster, The Longest Journey, Part III, XXXI [Uniform ed., p. 278]:
- On the banks of the grey torrent of life, love is the only flower.
- 2011 December 21, Helen Pidd, “Europeans migrate south as continent drifts deeper into crisis”, in the Guardian:
- A new stream of migrants is leaving the continent. It threatens to become a torrent if the debt crisis continues to worsen.
Derived terms
- BitTorrent
- torrent-bow
- torrent duck
- torrentfish
- torrential
- torrentine
Related terms
- torrid
- toast
Translations
violent flow, as of water etc.
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Adjective
torrent (comparative more torrent, superlative most torrent)
- Rolling or rushing in a rapid stream.
- 1667, John Milton, “Book II”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […], OCLC 228722708; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, OCLC 230729554:
- Waves of torrent fire.
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See also
- barrage
- inundate
- deluge
- torrential
Etymology 2
From BitTorrent and the file extension it uses for metadata (.torrent); ultimately from etymology 1.
Noun
torrent (plural torrents)
- (Internet, file sharing) A set of files obtainable through a peer-to-peer network, especially BitTorrent.
- I got a torrent of the complete works of Shakespeare the other day; I'm not sure why.
Translations
file transfers
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Verb
torrent (third-person singular simple present torrents, present participle torrenting, simple past and past participle torrented)
- (Internet slang, transitive) To download in a torrent.
- The video rental place didn't have the film I was after, but I managed to torrent it.
- 2009, Rick Dakan, Geek Mafia: Black Hat Blues, page 38:
- They had two thousand CDs burned with Listnin loaded on them, including versions for every major phone OS, and they'd set up a dozen servers in seven different countries for people to torrent the file from.
Derived terms
- torrenter
Catalan
Etymology
Borrowed from Latin torrēns, torrentem.
Pronunciation
- (Balearic, Valencian) IPA(key): /toˈrent/
- (Central) IPA(key): /tuˈren/
Noun
torrent m (plural torrents)
- torrent
Derived terms
- torrencial
- torrentada
- torrentol
Further reading
- “torrent” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
French
Etymology
Borrowed from Italian torrente, from Latin torrens.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /tɔ.ʁɑ̃/
audio (file)
Noun
torrent m (plural torrents)
- a torrent
Descendants
- → English: torrent
- → Romanian: torent
Further reading
- “torrent”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
Latin
Verb
torrent
- third-person plural present active indicative of torreō
Welsh
Alternative forms
- torren (colloquial)
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈtɔrɛnt/
Verb
torrent
- (literary) third-person plural imperfect/conditional of torri
- (literary) third-person plural imperative of torri
Mutation
| Welsh mutation | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| radical | soft | nasal | aspirate |
| torrent | dorrent | nhorrent | thorrent |
| Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs. | |||