Touch

Touch, tuch, v.t. to come in contact with: to perceive by feeling: to reach: to relate to: to handle or treat gently or slightly, as in 'to touch the hat,' &c.: to take, taste: to move or soften: to influence: to move to pity: to taint: (slang) to cheat: to lay the hand upon for the purpose of curing scrofula or king's evil—a practice that ceased only with the accession of the House of Brunswick.—v.i. to be in contact with: to make a passing call: to speak of anything slightly: (prov.) to salute by touching the cap.—n. act of touching: a movement on a musical instrument, skill or nicety in such, a musical note or strain: any impression conveyed by contact, a hint, a slight sound: a stroke with a pen, brush, &c.: a tinge, smack, trace, a slight degree of a thing: sense of feeling, contact, close sympathy, harmony: peculiar or characteristic manner: a style of anything at a certain expenditure: a touchstone, test.—adj. Touch′able, capable of being touched.—n. Touch′ableness, the state or quality of being touchable.—adj. Touch′-and-go, of uncertain issue, ticklish, difficult.—ns. Touch′-back, the act of touching the football to the ground behind the player's own goal when it has been kicked by an opponent; Touch′-box, a box containing tinder, which used to be carried by soldiers armed with matchlocks; Touch′-down, the touching to the ground of a football by a player behind the opponents' goal; Touch′er; Touch′-hole, the small hole of a cannon through which the fire is communicated to the charge.—adv. Touch′ily, in a touchy manner: peevishly.—n. Touch′iness, the quality of being touchy: peevishness: irritability.—adj. Touch′ing, affecting: moving: pathetic.—prep. concerning: with regard to.—adv. Touch′ingly.—ns. Touch′ingness; Touch′-me-not, a plant of genus Impatiens: lupus; Touch′-nee′dle, a small bar or needle of gold for testing articles of the same metal by comparing the streaks they make on a touchstone with those made by the needle; Touch′-pā′per, paper steeped in saltpetre for firing a train of powder, &c.; Touch′piece, a coin or medal formerly given by English sovereigns to those whom they touched for the cure of the king's evil; Touch′stone, a kind of compact basalt or stone for testing gold or silver by the streak of the touch-needle: any test; Touch′wood, some soft combustible material, as amadou, used as tinder.—adj. Touch′y, irritable: peevish.—Touch up, to improve by a series of small touches, to elaborate, embellish.—A near touch, a close shave. [Fr. toucher—from Old High Ger. zucchen (Ger. zucken), to move, to draw.]