torrent

Etymology 1

Borrowed from French torrent, from Italian torrente, from Latin torrentem, accusative of torrēns (“burning, seething, roaring”), from Latin torrēre (“to parch, scorch”).

noun

1. A violent flow, as of water, lava, etc.; a stream suddenly raised and running rapidly, as down a precipice.
   Rain fell on the hills in torrents.
   A torrent of green and white water broke over the hull of the sail-boat.
   Floods in northern India, mostly in the small state of Uttarakhand, have wrought disaster on an enormous scale.[…]Rock-filled torrents smashed vehicles and homes, burying victims under rubble and sludge. 2013-06-29, “High and wet”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8842, page 28
2. (figurative) A large amount or stream of something.
   They endured a torrent of inquiries.
   On the banks of the grey torrent of life, love is the only flower. 1907, E.M. Forster, The Longest Journey, Part III, XXXI [Uniform ed., p. 278]
   A new stream of migrants is leaving the continent. It threatens to become a torrent if the debt crisis continues to worsen. December 21, 2011, Helen Pidd, “Europeans migrate south as continent drifts deeper into crisis”, in the Guardian

adj

1. Rolling or rushing in a rapid stream.

Etymology 2

From BitTorrent and the file extension it uses for metadata (.torrent); ultimately from etymology 1.

noun

1. (Internet, file sharing) A set of files obtainable through a peer-to-peer network, especially BitTorrent.
   I got a torrent of the complete works of Shakespeare the other day; I'm not sure why.

verb

1. (Internet slang, transitive) To download in a torrent.
   The video rental place didn't have the film I was after, but I managed to torrent it.
   They had two thousand CDs burned with Listnin loaded on them, including versions for every major phone OS, and they'd set up a dozen servers in seven different countries for people to torrent the file from. 2009, Rick Dakan, Geek Mafia: Black Hat Blues, page 38