Citations:carry a torch for

Use without for

• 1986, Roger Kahn, Joe & Marilyn: A Memory of Love‎^[1]:

  As the press and public came to understand him, Joe was a lonely, rather sympathetic figure, carrying a torch after the lights of his first marriage had gone out.

• 2012, Allison Pang, A Sliver of Shadow‎^[2]:

  I've been wearing it since ... since Ion left. He put it on me, the, uh, last night he was with me.” “Still carrying a torch, eh?”

• 2015, Janette Turner Hospital, Charades‎^[3]:

  And McGillivray's been good to me. He's true blue, that bloke. (Funny thing, we went at it a few times back when, he still carries a torch, maybe