torcher
English
Etymology
Pronunciation
- (General American) IPA(key): /ˈtɔɹt͡ʃɚ/
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈtɔːt͡ʃə(ɹ)/
- Rhymes: -ɔː(ɹ)tʃə(ɹ)
Audio (US): (file) - Homophone: torture
- Hyphenation: torch‧er
Noun
torcher (plural torchers)
- One who torches something.
- The torchers of buildings must be dealt with.
- (obsolete) One who gives light with a torch, or as if with a torch.
- c. 1604–1605 (date written), William Shakespeare, “All’s Well, that Ends Well”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i], line 162:
- Ere twice the horses of the sun shall bring
Their fiery torcher his diurnal ring, […]
- (music) A torch song
- 1988 August 26, Neil Tesser, “Montgomery, Plant & Stritch”, in Chicago Reader[1]:
- […] their set includes a Patsy Cline torcher and reaches some sort of peak with a 29-song Irving Berlin medley.
- (music) A singer of a torch song
- 1939, Raymond Chandler, chapter 20, in The Big Sleep, New York: Knopf:
- What did the girl do before she married Eddie Mars?
Torcher.
Can’t you get any old professional photos?
- (science fiction) The pilot of a spacecraft propelled by a torch drive (a spacecraft engine which produces thrust by nuclear fusion).
References
- Jesse Sheidlower, editor (2001–2026), “torcher, n.”, in Historical Dictionary of Science Fiction.
French
Etymology
From torche + -er. The vulgar sense is from the notion of wiping one's posterior after defecating.
Pronunciation
Verb
torcher
- to wipe with a cloth to remove dirt
- Torcher les assiettes.
- To wipe the plates.
- to flare (to burn off excess gas at a petroleum drilling site)
- (slang) to churn out
- Synonym: bâcler
- (vulgar, reflexive) not to care, not to give a fuck
- Je me torche de ce qu'il en pense!
- I don't give a fuck what he thinks about it!
- (slang, passive voice) to be drunk
- T'étais complètement torché hier soir !
- You were absolutely smashed last night!
Usage notes
- In contemporary spoken French (at least in France), this verb is strongly (or even exclusively) associated with the idea of wiping (some)one's posterior after defecation ("se torcher (le cul)", "torcher le cul de quelqu'un") and is thus usually seen as vulgar.
Conjugation
Conjugation of torcher (see also Appendix:French verbs)
| infinitive | simple | torcher | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| compound | avoir + past participle | ||||||
| present participle or gerund1 | simple | torchant /tɔʁ.ʃɑ̃/ | |||||
| compound | ayant + past participle | ||||||
| past participle | torché /tɔʁ.ʃe/ | ||||||
| singular | plural | ||||||
| first | second | third | first | second | third | ||
| indicative | je (j’) | tu | il, elle, on | nous | vous | ils, elles | |
| (simple tenses) |
present | torche /tɔʁʃ/ |
torches /tɔʁʃ/ |
torche /tɔʁʃ/ |
torchons /tɔʁ.ʃɔ̃/ |
torchez /tɔʁ.ʃe/ |
torchent /tɔʁʃ/ |
| imperfect | torchais /tɔʁ.ʃɛ/ |
torchais /tɔʁ.ʃɛ/ |
torchait /tɔʁ.ʃɛ/ |
torchions /tɔʁ.ʃjɔ̃/ |
torchiez /tɔʁ.ʃje/ |
torchaient /tɔʁ.ʃɛ/ | |
| past historic2 | torchai /tɔʁ.ʃe/ |
torchas /tɔʁ.ʃa/ |
torcha /tɔʁ.ʃa/ |
torchâmes /tɔʁ.ʃam/ |
torchâtes /tɔʁ.ʃat/ |
torchèrent /tɔʁ.ʃɛʁ/ | |
| future | torcherai /tɔʁ.ʃə.ʁe/ |
torcheras /tɔʁ.ʃə.ʁa/ |
torchera /tɔʁ.ʃə.ʁa/ |
torcherons /tɔʁ.ʃə.ʁɔ̃/ |
torcherez /tɔʁ.ʃə.ʁe/ |
torcheront /tɔʁ.ʃə.ʁɔ̃/ | |
| conditional | torcherais /tɔʁ.ʃə.ʁɛ/ |
torcherais /tɔʁ.ʃə.ʁɛ/ |
torcherait /tɔʁ.ʃə.ʁɛ/ |
torcherions /tɔʁ.ʃə.ʁjɔ̃/ |
torcheriez /tɔʁ.ʃə.ʁje/ |
torcheraient /tɔʁ.ʃə.ʁɛ/ | |
| (compound tenses) |
present perfect | present indicative of avoir + past participle | |||||
| pluperfect | imperfect indicative of avoir + past participle | ||||||
| past anterior2 | past historic of avoir + past participle | ||||||
| future perfect | future of avoir + past participle | ||||||
| conditional perfect | conditional of avoir + past participle | ||||||
| subjunctive | que je (j’) | que tu | qu’il, qu’elle | que nous | que vous | qu’ils, qu’elles | |
| (simple tenses) |
present | torche /tɔʁʃ/ |
torches /tɔʁʃ/ |
torche /tɔʁʃ/ |
torchions /tɔʁ.ʃjɔ̃/ |
torchiez /tɔʁ.ʃje/ |
torchent /tɔʁʃ/ |
| imperfect2 | torchasse /tɔʁ.ʃas/ |
torchasses /tɔʁ.ʃas/ |
torchât /tɔʁ.ʃa/ |
torchassions /tɔʁ.ʃa.sjɔ̃/ |
torchassiez /tɔʁ.ʃa.sje/ |
torchassent /tɔʁ.ʃas/ | |
| (compound tenses) |
past | present subjunctive of avoir + past participle | |||||
| pluperfect2 | imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle | ||||||
| imperative | – | – | – | ||||
| simple | — | torche /tɔʁʃ/ |
— | torchons /tɔʁ.ʃɔ̃/ |
torchez /tɔʁ.ʃe/ |
— | |
| compound | — | simple imperative of avoir + past participle | — | simple imperative of avoir + past participle | simple imperative of avoir + past participle | — | |
| 1 The French gerund is usable only with the preposition en. | |||||||
2 In less formal writing or speech, these tenses may be found to have been replaced in the following way:
(Christopher Kendris [1995], Master the Basics: French, pp. 77, 78, 79, 81). | |||||||
Derived terms
- torchage
- torche-cul
- torchée
- torcheur
- torchon
Further reading
- “torcher”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012
- Nouveau Petit Larousse illustré. Dictionnaire encyclopédique. Paris, Librairie Larousse, 1952, 146th edition