TORRENT

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does torrent mean? 

• TORRENT (noun)
  The noun TORRENT has 3 senses:

1. a heavy rain

2. a violently fast stream of water (or other liquid)

3. an overwhelming number or amount

  Familiarity information: TORRENT used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• TORRENT (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A heavy rain

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural phenomena

Synonyms:

cloudburst; deluge; downpour; pelter; soaker; torrent; waterspout

Hypernyms ("torrent" is a kind of...):

rain; rainfall (water falling in drops from vapor condensed in the atmosphere)

Derivation:

torrential (pouring in abundance)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A violently fast stream of water (or other liquid)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural events

Synonyms:

torrent; violent stream

Context example:

the houses were swept away in the torrent

Hypernyms ("torrent" is a kind of...):

current; stream (a steady flow of a fluid (usually from natural causes))

Derivation:

torrential (relating to or resulting from the action of a torrent)

Sense 3

Meaning:

An overwhelming number or amount

Classified under:

Nouns denoting quantities and units of measure

Synonyms:

deluge; flood; inundation; torrent

Context example:

a torrent of abuse

Hypernyms ("torrent" is a kind of...):

batch; deal; flock; good deal; great deal; hatful; heap; lot; mass; mess; mickle; mint; mountain; muckle; passel; peck; pile; plenty; pot; quite a little; raft; sight; slew; spate; stack; tidy sum; wad ((often followed by 'of') a large number or amount or extent)

Derivation:

torrential (resembling a torrent in force and abundance)

 Context examples 

Elinor could no longer witness this torrent of unresisted grief in silence.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

The torrent, swollen by the melting snow, plunges into a tremendous abyss, from which the spray rolls up like the smoke from a burning house.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

There were no horses to be procured, and I must return by the lake; but the wind was unfavourable, and the rain fell in torrents.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

And then, my dear, before I could say a word he began pouring out a perfect torrent of love-making, laying his very heart and soul at my feet.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

“But that’s no reason—” Standish began in a torrent of speech.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

The outer door would not open to our knock, and nothing more substantial than a torrent of bad language came from behind it.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I was tempted to cease struggling with him—to rush down the torrent of his will into the gulf of his existence, and there lose my own.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

A NASA study based on an innovative technique for crunching torrents of satellite data provides the clearest picture yet of changes in Antarctic ice flow into the ocean.

(New Study Brings Antarctic Ice Loss Into Sharper Focus, NASA)

In Eleanor's presence friendship and pride had equally restrained her tears, but no sooner was she gone than they burst forth in torrents.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

As he spoke the seamen came swarming on to the poop and the forecastle to avoid the torrent which poured through the huge leak into the waist.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)