Englishcarry a torch for someone
Meaning: To be in love with someone, usually someone who does not love in return.
Example: “He's been carrying a torch for his high school sweetheart for twenty years.”
Origin: Comes from a musical genre. The torch song — a slow, sentimental ballad sung from the position of someone still in love with a person who has left or never returned the feeling — was a fixture of American popular music from the 1920s, and torch singers built entire careers on it. The performer was understood to be carrying a torch, and the phrase moved from describing the repertoire to describing the condition. Behind it sits a much older association of love with a carried flame, including the wedding torches of Greek and Roman processions, but the specific English idiom is twentieth-century and American. Its defining feature is one-sidedness: a torch is carried for someone, not with them.
More English idioms
- cast pearls before swine To offer something to someone who cannot appreciate it.
- a chip off the old block Very much like one's parent(s).
- clean slate A new beginning, with past mistakes or debts forgiven.
- clean someone out To take or steal everything someone has.
- clear the air To resolve hidden resentment or uncover hidden thoughts.
- climb the walls To be uneasy or restless.
Explore another collection: False Friends
Words that look familiar in another language but mean something else entirely.
- Sensible Actually means 'sensitive'. For sensible/level-headed, say raisonnable.
- Librairie Actually means 'bookshop'. A library is une bibliothèque.
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