torching

Verb

torch (third-person singular simple present torches, present participle torching, simple past and past participle torched)

1. (transitive) To illuminate or provide (a place) with torches (noun etymology 1, noun sense 1).
2. (informal, transitive) 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.

   Synonyms:

   burn, ignite, inflame, set ablaze, aflame, alight, conflagrate, fire, fire up, enkindle

3. (figuratively, transitive) 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.

   Synonyms:

   burn, malign, assassinate, asperse, backbite, badmouth, befoul, belibel, besmirch, besmear

4. (intransitive) Of a fire: to burn.
   • The flames torched up twenty feet in the air.

   Synonyms:

   combust, go up, burn, forburn, outburn

5. (intransitive) To travel in a spacecraft propelled by a torch drive (“an engine which produces thrust by nuclear fusion”).
6. (UK, dialectal, figuratively, intransitive) To (appear to) flare up like a torch.

   Synonyms:

   blaze up, flare up

See all 17 meanings of torch