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
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
Anthony Loyd … the vast network of storm-water drains that move great torrents of water out of the city when it rains … —Duncan Murrell
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
Glen Adams
b
: a heavy downpour of rain
… a torrent of rain poured down.—Walter Farley
—usually used in pluralWalter FarleyThe rain is coming down in torrents. Lightning is flashing.—Alice Walker
Alice WalkerTorrents of rain drenched the Hamptons …—Chris Mundy
Chris Mundy2
: 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
Ian ThomsenThe 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 pluralCharles Barber… torrents of unsolicited e-mail advertising …—Peter H. Lewis
Peter H. Lewis… once he becomes fixed on a subject, the words come in torrents.—Jeffrey Goldberg
Jeffrey Goldberg3
: 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
June P. Wilson4
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
Shelley BooseOver the weekend, several ISPs … began showing a warning to users when they visited certain torrent or other file-sharing websites.—Rajat Agrawal
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
Daniel Bulygin Torrent files have been a top choice of users across the internet to share files for almost two decades. —Ivan Mehta
Ivan Mehta
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
Sunset2
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
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
Aaron FisherSynonyms
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
David Faris, Newsweek, 4 Nov. 2024
Advertisement Judging from the torrent of polling divinations, spirited debate and reportage dedicated to the potential ballot choices of our sons, brothers, husbands and uncles, women’s voting trends must be stagnant or just simpler, right?
—Lorraine Ali, Los Angeles Times, 2 Nov. 2024
Kevin Purdy, Ars Technica, 16 July 2024
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Noun
Near ubiquitous, however, is consternation about the election process as a whole, with Pennsylvania being Ground Zero for an unyielding torrent of partisan propaganda.
—David Faris, Newsweek, 4 Nov. 2024
Advertisement Judging from the torrent of polling divinations, spirited debate and reportage dedicated to the potential ballot choices of our sons, brothers, husbands and uncles, women’s voting trends must be stagnant or just simpler, right?
—Lorraine Ali, Los Angeles Times, 2 Nov. 2024
Verb
Enough to torrent a 75GB package from a Russian site?
—Kevin Purdy, Ars Technica, 16 July 2024
See all Example Sentences for torrent
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Cite this Entry
“Torrent.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/torrent. Accessed 29 Nov. 2024.
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