torrent

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈtɒɹ.ənt/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈtɔɹ.ənt/
• (NYC) IPA^(key): /ˈtɑɹ.ənt/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

From French torrent, from Italian torrente, from Latin torrentem, accusative of torrēns (“burning, seething, roaring”), from Latin torrēre (“to parch, scorch”).

torrent (plural torrents)

1. A violent flow, as of water, lava, etc.; a stream suddenly raised and running rapidly, as down a precipice.
   • Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

     The roaring torrent is deep and wide.

   • 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.

   Rain fell on the hills in torrents.

   A torrent of green and white water broke over the hull of the sail-boat.

2. (figuratively) A large amount or stream of something.
   • 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.

   • 1906, Alfred Noyes, The Highwayman:

     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 ...

   They endured a torrent of inquiries.

• torrential
• torrentiality
• torrentially

torrent (comparative more torrent, superlative most torrent)

1. Rolling or rushing in a rapid stream.
   • Milton

     Waves of torrent fire.

• barrage
• inundate
• deluge
• torrential

From BitTorrent and the file extension it uses for metadata (.torrent).

torrent (plural torrents)

1. (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.

torrent (third-person singular simple present torrents, present participle torrenting, simple past and past participle torrented)

1. (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.

torrent m (plural torrents)

1. current

From Latin torrens

• IPA^(key): /tɔ.ʁɑ̃/

• audio

  (file)

torrent m (plural torrents)

1. A torrent

• “torrent” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

torrent

1. third-person plural present active indicative of torreō

• torren (colloquial)

• IPA^(key): /ˈtɔrɛnt/

torrent

1. (literary) third-person plural imperfect and conditional of torri
2. (literary) third-person plural imperative of torri