touch
Forms
- present (v1)
- touch
- past (v2)
- touched
- past participle (v3)
- touched
- present participle
- touching
- 3rd person singular
- touches
- Plural
- touches
Definitions
1.Primarily physical senses.
- If you touch her, I'll kill you.
- She touched her lips to the glass.
- Tell me the truth, did you touch her?
2.Primarily non-physical senses.
- I wouldn't touch that with a ten-foot pole.
- Stefan was touched by the song's message of hope.
- You must be touched if you think I'm taking your advice.
3.To try; to prove, as with a touchstone.
- I mean to touch your love indeed.
4.To mark or delineate with touches; to add a slight stroke to with the pencil or brush.
- The lines, though touched but faintly, are drawn right.
1.The faculty or sense of perception by physical contact.
- With the lights out, she had to rely on touch to find her desk.
2.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.
3.The particular or characteristic mode of action, or the resistance of the keys of an instrument to the fingers.
4.An act of touching, especially with the hand or finger.
- Suddenly, in the crowd, I felt a touch at my shoulder.
Frequency
Overall
Common· #1157
By learning goal
- Everyday conversation
- Uncommon
- General reading & writing
- Uncommon
- Academic
- Rare
- Literature
- Uncommon
Related words
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.