Torch

Torch

A torch is a fire source, usually a rod-shaped piece of wood with a soaked in pitch and/or some other flammable material wrapped around one end. Torches were often supported in sconces by brackets high up on walls, to throw light over corridors in stone structures such as castles or crypts. This traditional use of the word lives on in the Olympic Torch, procession torches and the like.

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Famous quotes containing the word torch:

    It is the sinner’s dust-tongued bell claps me to churches
    When, with his torch and hourglass, like a sulphur priest,
    His beast heel cleft in a sandal....
    Dylan Thomas (1914–1953)

    Time grows dim. Time that was so long
    grows short, time, all goggle-eyed,
    wiggling her skirts, singing her torch song,
    giving the boys a buzz and a ride,
    that Nazi Mama with her beer and sauerkraut.
    Time, old gal of mine, will soon dim out.
    Anne Sexton (1928–1974)

    Patriotism. Combustible rubbish ready to the torch of any one ambitious to illuminate his name.
    Ambrose Bierce (1842–1914)