1. Loss of motion, or of the motion; a state of inactivity with partial
or total insensibility; numbness.
2. Dullness; sluggishness; inactivity; as, a torpor of the mental
faculties.
Tor`por*if"ic (?), a. [L. torpor torpor + facere to make.] Tending to
produce torpor.
Tor"quate (?), a. [L. torquatus wearing a collar.] (Zoöl.) Collared;
having a torques, or distinct colored ring around the neck.
tor"qua*ted (?), a. [L. Torqyatus.] Having or wearing a torque, or neck
chain.
Torque (?), n. [L. torques a twisted neck chain, fr. torquere to
twist.] 1. A collar or neck chain, usually twisted, especially as worn
by ancient barbaric nations, as the Gauls, Germans, and Britons.
2. [L. torquere to twist.] (Mech.) That which tends to produce torsion;
a couple of forces. J. Thomson.
3. (Phys. Science) A turning or twisting; tendency to turn, or cause to
turn, about an axis.
Torqued (?), a. [L. torquere to twist, to turn, to wind.] 1. Wreathed;
twisted. [R.]
2. (Her.) Twisted; bent; — said of a dolphin haurient, which forms a
figure like the letter S.
||Tor"ques (?), n. [L., a necklace. See Torque, 1.] (Zoöl.) A cervical
||ring of hair or feathers, distinguished by its color or structure; a
||collar.
||
Tor`re*fac"tion (?), n. [L. torrefacere,torrefactum, to torrefy: cf. F.
torréfaction. See Torrefy.] The act or process of torrefying, or the
state of being torrefied. Bp. Hall.
Tor"re*fy (?), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Torrefied (?); p. pr. & vb. n.
Torrefying.] [L. torrere to parch + -fy: cf. F. torréfier, L.
torrefacere.] [Written also torrify.] 1. To dry by a fire. Sir T.
Browne.
2. (Metal.) To subject to scorching heat, so as to drive off volatile
ingredients; to roast, as ores.
3. (Pharm.) To dry or parch, as drugs, on a metallic plate till they
are friable, or are reduced to the state desired.
Tor"rent (?), n. [F., fr. L. torrens, -entis, fr. torrens burning,
roaring, boiling, p. pr. of torrere to dry by heat, to burn. See
Torrid.] 1. A violent stream, as of water, lava, or the like; a stream
suddenly raised and running rapidly, as down a precipice.
The roaring torrent is deep and wide.
Longfellow.
2. Fig.: A violent or rapid flow; a strong current; a flood; as, a
torrent of vices; a torrent of eloquence.
At length, Erasmus, that great injured name, . . . Stemmed the wild
torrent of a barbarous age.
Pope.
Tor"rent, a. [See Torrent, n.] Rolling or rushing in a rapid stream.
"Waves of torrent fire." Milton.
{ Tor*ren"tial (?), Tor*ren"tine (?), } a. Of or pertaining to a
torrent; having the character of a torrent; caused by a torrent . [R.]
Tor`ri*cel"li*an (?), a. Of or pertaining to Torricelli, an Italian
philosopher and mathematician, who, in 1643, discovered that the rise
of a liquid in a tube, as in the barometer, is due to atmospheric
pressure. See Barometer.
Torricellian tube, a glass tube thirty or more inches in length, open
at the lower end and hermetically sealed at the upper, such as is used
in the barometer. — Torricellian vacuum (Physics), a vacuum produced by
filling with a fluid, as mercury, a tube hermetically closed at one
end, and, after immersing the other end in a vessel of the same fluid,
allowing the inclosed fluid to descend till it is counterbalanced by
the pressure of the atmosphere, as in the barometer. Hutton.
Tor"rid (?), a. [L. torridus, fr. torrere to parch, to burn, akin to E.
Thist: cf. F. torride. See Thirst.] 1. Parched; dried with heat; as, a
torrid plain or desert. "Barca or Cyrene's torrid soil." Milton.
2. Violenty hot; drying or scorching with heat; burning; parching.
"Torrid heat." Milton.
Torrid zone (Geog.), that space or board belt of the earth, included
between the tropics, over which the sun is vertical at some period of
every year, and the heat is always great.