[f. TORCH sb.]

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  1.  trans. To furnish, or light, with a torch or torches. (See TORCHED, and cf. TORCHER1 1.)

2

  2.  intr. To flare like a torch; to rise like smoke from a torch. dial.

3

1847–78.  Halliwell s.v., Recently heard at Boyton,… ‘Law! how them clouds torch up, we shall ha rain.’

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  3.  To catch fish, etc., by torch-light. U.S.

5

1887.  Fisheries of U.S., Sect. V. II. 502. Another method, known as ‘torching,’… is practiced principally by negroes. Having provided themselves with torches they visit the sandy shores at night and catch the terrapins as they come upon the beach to spawn.

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