torch
n. countablen. a small, hand-held light that runs on batteries. In American English, people usually call this a flashlight.
n. a portable, battery-operated electric lamp. Primarily used in British, Australian, and New Zealand English; the North American equivalent is 'flashlight'.
I used a torch to find my keys in the dark.
The power went out during the storm, so we had to use a torch to walk down the stairs safely.
The rescue team moved slowly through the cave, their torches casting long, flickering shadows against the damp limestone walls as they searched for the missing hikers.
The noun is derived from Middle English torch, torche (“large candle; lighted stick; (figurative) sunbeam”), from Old French torche, torque (“torch; bundle of (twisted) straw”) (modern French torche); further etymology uncertain, probably from Vulgar Latin torca (“coiled object”) (referring to a torch made from twisted plant fibres dipped in a flammable substance such as pitch), from Latin torqua, a variant of torquis (“collar of twisted metal, torque; wreath”), from torqueō (“to twist, wind”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European terkʷ- (“to spin; to turn”). Sense 2.3 (Verbascum thapsus) is either due to the plant’s spike of yellow flowers, or because its leaves and stalks were used to make torches (noun sense 1). Sense 3.2 (“precious cause, etc., which needs to be protected and transmitted to others”) is derived from Latin lampada trādere, from Ancient Greek λᾰμπᾰ́δᾰ πᾰρᾰδιδόναι (lămpắdă părădidónai, “to hand over the torch”), a reference to the torch race held at various festivals such as the Panathenaic Games in Ancient Greece, which involved a relay where a torch was passed from one runner to another. The verb is derived from the noun.
Borrowed from French torcher (“to daub; to wipe; to build or plaster with clay mixed with chopped straw”), from torche (“bundle of (twisted) straw; torch”) (see further at etymology 1) + -er (suffix forming the infinitives of first-conjugation verbs).
Commonly takes the verb 'shine' or 'point'.
I turned on my flashlight (in London)I turned on my torchWhile 'flashlight' is understood globally, 'torch' is the standard term in British English contexts.