torrent
NounOpen English WordNet
Noun (3)
- a heavy rainSynonyms: downpourcloudburstdelugewaterspoutpeltersoakerType of rain, rainfall
- a violently fast stream of water (or other liquid)“the houses were swept away in the torrent”Synonyms: violent streamType of current, stream
- an overwhelming number or amount“a flood of requests”“a torrent of abuse”Synonyms: floodinundationdelugeType of batch, deal
a state or condition markedly different from the norm
Webster's Dictionary (1913)
Origin: 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.— Henry W. 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.— Alexander Pope
Origin: See Torrent, noun
Rolling or rushing in a rapid stream. “Waves of torrent fire.” John Milton
Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913), from GCIDE 0.54
Free On-line Dictionary of Computing
<networking> 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)