Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English homepage

Date: 1500-1600
Language: French
Origin: Latin torrens 'burning, going very fast', from torrere; TORRID

torrent

 noun
     
tor‧rent [countable]
1 a large amount of water moving very quickly and strongly in a particular direction [↪ flood]:
After five days of heavy rain the Telle river was a raging torrent (=a very violent torrent).
in torrents
The rain came down in torrents.
2

a torrent of something

a lot of words spoken quickly, especially in order to insult or criticize someone:
When I asked him to move, he unleashed a torrent of abuse.
a torrent of Greek/Italian etc
The woman poured out a torrent of Italian.
Definition from the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
Advanced Learner's Dictionary.

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