a. [f. L. torrēnt-em TORRENT + -IAL: cf. tangential.]
1. Of, pertaining to, or of the nature of a torrent; produced by the action of a torrent.
Torrential months, months characterized by torrents.
1861. J. H. Bennet, Winter Medit., I. i. (1875), 11. A series of hills … rent by numerous ravines and torrential valleys.
1873. J. Geikie, Gt. Ice Age, xxvi. 362. The denuded and partially rearranged portions of old torrential gravel and sand.
1880. V. Ball, Jungle Life in India, ii. 57. These rivers are … fed by thousands of torrential streams which, when there is no rain, completely dry up.
1892. Daily Graphic, 8 Jan., 7/3. The torrential months of January and February.
2. Like a torrent in rapidity or violence; torrent-like; rushing; falling in torrents, as rain.
1849. Fraser’s Mag., XL. 605. No eddying groups; no torrential processions.
1863. Tyndall, Heat, 388. The condensation of the vapour, and its torrential descent to the earth.
1865. Morn. Star, 21 July. To the intense heat,… has succeeded torrential rain.
1894. Scotsman, 27 Aug., 7. A rain-storm which the newfangled appellation ‘torrential’ only feebly describes.
b. fig. As copious or impetuous as a torrent.
1877. D. M. Wallace, Russia, xxv. 396. The poetasters poured forth their feelings with torrential recklessness.
1879. G. Meredith, Egoist, III. xiv. 293. He could woo, he was a torrential wooer.
1897. in Academy, 13 March, 308/2. A man of torrential eloquence.
1909. Blackw. Mag., Aug., 232/1. They broke and fled with the British in torrential pursuit.
Hence Torrentiality, torrential character or condition; Torrentially adv., in a torrential way; in torrents, or like a torrent.
1843. Morning Post, 18 Jan., 3/6. The English language, with it rich suppleness, facilitates the emission of all ideas, so that, without talent, learning or taste, a man may speak torrentially, as long as he like.
1882. Proctor, in Nat. Stud. (N. Y.), 52. Since the woods were cleared the rain falls more torrentially than before.
1898. Buffalo Evening News, 28 Sept., 9/1. It [a keynote speech] was cracked in the upper register and split into rag time by the torrentiality of its adjectives.
1891. Cent. Dict., Torrentiality.
1901. Daily Chron., 4 Nov., 5/7. To the stern, where sailors and marines rushed torrentially, called for ‘three cheers, and one cheer more.’
