touch
/tʌt͡ʃ/ verb, noun
Forms touches touching touched toucht touchest touchedst toucheth
- verb (transitive) To make physical contact with; to bring the hand, finger or other part of the body into contact with. “I touched his face softly.”
- verb (transitive) To come into (involuntary) contact with; to meet or intersect. “Sitting on the bench, the hem of her skirt touched the ground.”
- verb (intransitive) To come into physical contact, or to be in physical contact. “They stood next to each other, their shoulders touching.”
- verb (intransitive) To make physical contact with a thing. “Please can I have a look, if I promise not to touch?”
- verb (transitive) To physically disturb; to interfere with, molest, or attempt to harm through contact. “If you touch her, I'll kill you.”
- verb (transitive) To make intimate physical contact with a person. “The man was arrested for touching a girl without her consent.”
- verb (transitive, reflexive or rarely intransitive) To sexually excite with the fingers; to finger or masturbate. “Her parents had caught her touching herself when she was fifteen.”
- verb To have sexual intercourse with “Tell me the truth, did you touch her?”
- noun An act of touching, especially with the hand or finger. “Suddenly, in the crowd, I felt a touch at my shoulder.”
- noun The faculty or sense of perception by physical contact. “With the lights out, she had to rely on touch to find her desk.”
- noun The style or technique with which one plays a musical instrument. “He performed one of Ravel's piano concertos with a wonderfully light and playful touch.”
- noun (music) The particular or characteristic mode of action, or the resistance of the keys of an instrument to the fingers. “a heavy touch, or a light touch”
- noun A distinguishing feature or characteristic. “Clever touches like this are what make her such a brilliant writer.”
- noun A little bit; a small amount. “Move it left just a touch and it will be perfect.”
- noun The part of a sports field beyond the touchlines or goal-lines. “He got the ball, and kicked it straight out into touch.”
- noun (uncountable, in set phrases) A relationship of close communication or understanding. “He promised to keep in touch while he was away.”
Synonyms
contact feel grope handle caress fondle consume discuss get outside ingest partake put away bring up mention move reference toss up touch on refer affect touching sense of touch skin senses touch modality cutaneous senses trace ghost signature hint tinge
Etymology
From Middle English touchen, tochen, from Old French tochier (“to touch”) (whence Modern French toucher; compare French doublet toquer (“to offend, bother, harass”)), from Vulgar Latin *tuccō (“to knock, strike, offend”), from Frankish *tukkōn (“to knock, strike, touch”), from Proto-Germanic *tukkōną (“to tug, grab, grasp”), from Proto-Indo-European *dewk- (“to draw, pull, lead”). Largely displaced native Middle English rinen, from Old English hrīnan (whence Modern English rine). Doublet of tuck.
Cognate with Old High German zochhōn, zuhhōn (“to grasp, take, seize, snatch”) (whence German zucken (“to jerk, flinch”)), German Low German tucken, tocken (“to fidget, twitch, pull up, entice, throb, knock, repeatedly tap”), Middle Dutch tocken, tucken (“to touch, entice”) (whence Dutch tokkelen (“to strum, pluck”)), Old English tucian, tūcian (“to disturb, mistreat”) (whence Modern English tuck). Compare also Old High German tokkōn, tockōn (“to abut, collide”). More at tuck.
Via Proto-Indo-European *dewk- cognate with English tie, tow, tug, team, Latin dūcō, dux.
Webster’s 1913
- verb To come in contact with; to hit or strike lightly against; to extend the hand, foot, or the like, so as to reach or rest on. Him thus intent Ithuriel with his spear Touched lightly. Milton.
- verb To perceive by the sense of feeling.
- verb To be in contact; to be in a state of junction, so that no space is between; as, two spheres touch only at points. Johnson.
- verb To fasten; to take effect; to make impression. [R.]
Etymology [F. toucher, OF. touchier, tuchier; of Teutonic origin; cf. OHG. zucchen, zukken, to twitch, pluck, draw, G. zukken, zukken, v. intens. fr. OHG. ziohan to draw, G. ziehen, akin to E. tug. See Tuck, v. t., Tug, and cf. Tocsin, Toccata.]
Etymology [Cf. F. touche. See Touch, v.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “touch”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details