torch song
Americannoun
noun
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of torch song
First recorded in 1925–30
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The latter is as defiant as Frank Sinatra’s “My Way,” a torch song that boasts, “It’s not about being first/but knowing how to get there.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 6, 2026
The LP’s second ballad is a torch song, “We’re All Alone.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 23, 2026
There’s also an early version of “We Three,” the torch song she wrote with Tom Verlaine, which would later make it onto “Easter.”
From Salon ● Dec. 9, 2025
The duo stockpiled a few hundred songs and whittled them down to the final 11, from the anguished torch song “Never Not Love You” to the encouraging “Get Up Kid.”
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 14, 2023
“No Choice” is her anguished account of why leaving was necessary for self-preservation, while “Blue,” her take on a torch song, exults in the sensuality of romance with the melancholy awareness that it could fade.
From New York Times ● Aug. 25, 2022
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
