torrent

1 of 3

noun

tor·​rent ˈtȯr-ənt 

ˈtär-

plural torrents

1

a

: a violent or forceful flow of fluid

Terrifying video captured near Hawaii volcano Kilauea shows a torrent of lava violently flowing down the slopes of the erupting mount …

—Aurora Bosotti

especially : a rushing stream of water

Beneath the area's dense canopy of vegetation, rugged hills and valleys are bisected by streams that rage as torrents during the rainy season, forbidding terrain for any unwelcome stranger.

—Anthony Loyd

… the vast network of storm-water drains that move great torrents of water out of the city when it rains …

—Duncan Murrell

As church bells pealed yesterday, a torrent of water was unleashed through a manmade gap in the 162-year-old Edwards Dam in the first U.S. government-ordered demolition of a dam in the name of conservation.

—Glen Adams

b

: a heavy downpour of rain

… a torrent of rain poured down.

—Walter Farley

—usually used in plural

The rain is coming down in torrents. Lightning is flashing.

—Alice Walker

Torrents of rain drenched the Hamptons …

—Chris Mundy

2

: a tumultuous outpouring : rush

Injuries, a 13-game losing streak and a torrent of criticism have turned this into the toughest season of Vince Carter's four-year career.

—Ian Thomsen

The torrent of money flowing into the field can only be described in superlatives—hundreds of millions of dollars for efforts such as Princeton's Center for the Study of Brain, Mind, and Behavior and MIT's McGovern Institute for Brain Research.

—Charles Barber

—often used in plural

… torrents of unsolicited e-mail advertising …

—Peter H. Lewis

… once he becomes fixed on a subject, the words come in torrents.

—Jeffrey Goldberg

3

: a channel of a mountain stream

As we advanced up the valley, the road presented yet another vertiginous challenge. Being a single track carved out of the mountain wall that flanked a glacial torrent, it meant that when a car came from the opposite direction, one had to back to the nearest turnaround.

—June P. Wilson

4

computing : a protocol (see protocol sense 3b) that is used to distribute a large computer file (such as of digitized music or video) that has been segmented in small pieces between a large number of peer-to-peer users

… user behaviour, such as use of file-sharing services and protocols like torrent …

—Shelley Boose

Over the weekend, several ISPs … began showing a warning to users when they visited certain torrent or other file-sharing websites.

—Rajat Agrawal

also : a file or set of files that is transferred with this protocol

Let me just share the best way I know how to download torrents without setting off any red flags.

—Daniel Bulygin

Torrent files have been a top choice of users across the internet to share files for almost two decades.

—Ivan Mehta

torrent

2 of 3

verb

torrented; torrenting; torrents

1

intransitive : to move in a torrent (see torrent entry 1 sense 1a)

rivers of torrenting water

Water torrents off hillsides, thunders over falls, sparkles in ponds and pools.

—Sunset

2

transitive + intransitive : to download via a torrent (see torrent entry 1 sense 4)

Torrenting itself isn't illegal, but downloading unsanctioned copyrighted material is. It's not always immediately apparent which content is legal to torrent and which isn't.

—Paul Bischoff

[Dan] Schlosser said that when he was caught torrenting, the University forwarded him a notice of copyright infringement from HBO and warned that if he were caught again, he would have to meet with a representative from the Office of Judicial Affairs.

—Aaron Fisher

torrent

3 of 3

adjective

: torrential

Synonyms

Noun

• alluvion
• bath
• cataclysm
• cataract
• deluge
• flood
• flood tide
• inundation
• Niagara
• overflow
• spate

Examples of torrent in a Sentence

Noun

The storm turned the stream into a raging torrent.

The rain came down in torrents.

Recent Examples on the Web

Noun

Officials made the decision to release a torrent of water through the Grand Canyon to keep Glen Canyon Dam from overspilling. —Austin Corona, The Arizona Republic, 7 Dec. 2024

Kamala Harris’s sudden elevation to the top of the Democratic ticket, brat summer, Elon Musk’s torrent of money into the race for Trump, the online Manosphere, far-right extremists and Trump’s win. —Leah Feiger, WIRED, 6 Dec. 2024

Verb

Enough to torrent a 75GB package from a Russian site? —Kevin Purdy, Ars Technica, 16 July 2024

Word History

Etymology

Noun

borrowed from French & Latin; French, "violent stream of liquid," going back to Old French, borrowed from Latin torrent-, torrens "rushing stream, river current," noun derivative of torrens, adjective, "flowing headlong, rushing," probably going back to a participial derivative of an Indo-European stative present *tr̥s-eh₁- "be dried out, be dessicated," from a verbal base *ters- "dry up, become thirsty" — more at thirst entry 1

Note: According to the hypothesis suggested in the etymology, the original meaning of the noun torrens would have been "dessicated area, dry stream bed"; as such stream beds, particularly in Mediterranean climates, could be filled with fast-flowing water during rainy periods, the meaning shifted to "rushing stream." Hence the homonymy between torrens and the present participle of the causative verb torrēre "to heat so as to dry, scorch, parch" (from *tors-see torrid) would be fortuitous. Such a shift was already hypothesized by the Roman grammarian Sextus Pompeius Festus.

Verb

verbal derivative of torrent entry 1

Adjective

borrowed from Latin torrent-, torrens "flowing headlong, rushing" — more at torrent entry 1

First Known Use

Noun

1608, in the meaning defined at sense 1a

Verb

1858, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Adjective

1667, in the meaning defined above

Kids Definition

torrent

noun

tor·​rent

ˈtȯr-ənt,

ˈtär-

1

: a rushing stream of a liquid

a torrent of rain

2

: a mountain stream or its channel

3

: a sudden rush like a stream of liquid

a torrent of criticism

Etymology

Noun

from French torrent "a violent stream of liquid," from Latin torrent-, torrens (same meaning), from torrens (adjective) "burning, flowing with great force," derived from torrēre "to heat so as to dry up or burn" — related to torrid see Word History at torrid