The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Torrent \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.
      [1913 Webster]

            The roaring torrent is deep and wide. --Longfellow.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. Fig.: A violent or rapid flow; a strong current; a flood;
      as, a torrent of vices; a torrent of eloquence.
      [1913 Webster]

            At length, Erasmus, that great injured name, . . .
            Stemmed the wild torrent of a barbarous age. --Pope.
      [1913 Webster]

The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Torrent \Tor"rent\, a. [See Torrent, n.]
   Rolling or rushing in a rapid stream. "Waves of torrent
   fire." --Milton.
   [1913 Webster] Torrential

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

torrent
    n 1: a heavy rain [syn: downpour, cloudburst, deluge,
         waterspout, torrent, pelter, soaker]
    2: a violently fast stream of water (or other liquid); "the
       houses were swept away in the torrent" [syn: torrent,
       violent stream]
    3: an overwhelming number or amount; "a flood of requests"; "a
       torrent of abuse" [syn: flood, inundation, deluge,
       torrent]

Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:

67 Moby Thesaurus words for "torrent":
   Niagara, antelope, arrow, belch, blue darter, blue streak, burst,
   cannonball, cascade, cataclysm, cataract, courser, dart,
   debouchment, deluge, dissiliency, eagle, effusion, electricity,
   eructation, eruption, express train, flare-up, flash, flood,
   flooding, flow, fresh, freshet, gazelle, greased lightning,
   greyhound, gush, gushing, hare, inundation, jet, jet plane, light,
   lightning, mercury, outbreak, outburst, outpouring, overflow, pour,
   quicksilver, rapids, river, rocket, rush, scared rabbit, shot,
   spate, spew, spurt, streak, streak of lightning, stream,
   striped snake, swallow, thought, thunderbolt, tide, volcan,
   waterflood, wind



The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (30 December 2018):

BitTorrent
seed
torrent

    A popular, distributed form of peer-to-peer
   file sharing that enables a client program to fetch
   different parts of a file (a "torrent") from different sources
   in parallel.  The system is designed to encourage users to
   make downloaded data available for others to upload.  This is
   aided by a scheme for exchanging unique identifiers, commonly
   stored in ".torrent" files.  A downloader who does not serve
   data to others is called a "leech".  A "seed" is a computer
   that has a complete copy of a file, possibly the original.

   The bittorrent.com site claims there are over 100 million
   users as of 2007-03-24.

   Most of the data is copyright material like films or
   commercial software.

   (http://www.bittorrent.com/what-is-bittorrent).

   (2007-03-27)