Emily Dickinson Lexicon

TOR-PES'CENCE, n.

A state of insensibility; torpidness; numbness; stupidity.

TOR-PES'CENT, a. [L. torpescens.]

Becoming torpid or numb. Shenstone.

TOR'PID, a. [L. torpidus, torpeo; perhaps W. torp, a lump.]

1. Having lost motion or the power of exertion and feeling; numb; as, a torpid limb. Without heat all things would be torpid. Ray.
2. Dull; stupid; sluggish; inactive. The mind as well as the body becomes torpid by indolence. Impenitent sinners remain in a state of torpid security. Barrington.

TOR-PID'I-TY, n.

Torpidness.

TOR'PID-LY, adv.

In a dull, inactive manner.

TOR'PID-NESS, or TOR'PI-TUDE, n.

1. The state of being torpid; numbness. Torpidness may amount to total insensibility or loss of sensation.
2. Dullness; inactivity; sluggishness; stupidity.

TOR'PI-FIED, pp.

Rendered torpid.

TOR'PI-FY, v.t.

To make torpid.

TOR'PI-FY-ING, ppr.

Rendering torpid.

TOR'POR, n. [L.]

1. Numbness; inactivity; loss of motion, or of the power of motion. Torpor may amount to a told loss of sensation, or complete insensibility. It may however be applied to the state of a living body which has not lost all power of feeling and motion.
2. Dullness; laziness; sluggishness; stupidity.

TOR-PO-RIF'IC, a. [L. torpor and facio.]

Tending to produce torpor.

TOR-RE-FAC'TION, n. [Fr. from L. torrefacio; torridus and facio.]

1. The operation of drying by a fire.
2. In metallurgy, the operation of roasting ores.
3. In pharmacy, the drying or roasting of drugs on metaline plate, placed over or before coals of fire, till they become friable to the fingers, or till some other desired effect is produced. Cyc.

TOR'RE-FI-ED, pp.

Dried; roasted; scorched. Torrefied earth, in agriculture, is that which has undergone the action of fire. Cyc.

TOR'RE-FY, v.t. [L. torrefacio; L. torridus, torreo, and facio; Fr. torrefier.]

1. To dry by a fire. Brown.
2. In metallurgy, to roast or scorch, as metallic ores.
3. In pharmacy, to dry or parch, as drugs, on a metalline plate till they are friable, or are reduced to any state desired.

TOR'RE-FY-ING, ppr.

Drying by a fire; roasting; parching.

TOR'RENT, a.

Rolling or rushing in a rapid stream; as, waves of torrent fire.

TOR'RENT, n. [L. torrens. This is the participle of torreo, to parch. But the sense of the word torrent, allies it to the W. tori, to break, and the Eng. tear. They are all of one family, denoting violent action.]

1. A violent rushing stream of water or other fluid; a stream suddenly raised and running rapidly, as down a precipice; as, a torrent of lava.
2. A violent or rapid stream; a strong current; as, a torrent of vices and follies; a torrent of corruption. Erasmus, that great injur'd name, / Stemm'd the wild torrent of a barb'rous age. Pope.

TOR-RI-CEL'LI-AN, a.

Pertaining to Torricelli, an Italian philosopher and mathematician, who discovered the true principle on which the barometer is constructed. Torricellian tube, is a glass tube thirty or more inches in length, open at one end, and hermetically sealed at the other. Torricellian vacuum, a vacuum produced by filling a tube with mercury, and allowing it to descend till it is counterbalanced by the weight of an equal column of the atmosphere, as in the barometer.

TOR'RID, a. [L. torridus, from torreo, to roast.]

1. Parched; dried with heat; as, a torrid plain or desert.
2. Violently hot; burning or parching; as, a torrid heat. Milton. Torrid zone, in geography, that space or broad belt of the earth included between the tropics, over which the sun is vertical at some period every year, and where the heat is always great.

TOR'RID-NESS, n.

The state of being very hot or parched.

TORSE, n. [Fr. torse; L. tortus.]

In heraldry, a wreath.

TOR'SEL, n. [supra.]

Any thing in a twisted form; as, torsel for mantle-trees. Moxon.

TOR'SION, n. [L. torsio, from torqueo, to twist.]

The act of turning or twisting. Torsion balance, an instrument for estimating very minute forces by the motion of an index attached to the ends of two fine wires, which twist around each other. D. Olmsled.

TOR'SO, n. [It.]

The trunk of a statue, mutilated of head and limbs; as, the torso of Hercules.

TOR'STEN, n.

An iron ore of a bright bluish black, &c.