Touching

6 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Touch \Touch\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Touched}; p. pr. & vb. n.
     {Touching}.] [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}.]


     1. 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.
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              Him thus intent Ithuriel with his spear
              Touched lightly.                      --Milton.
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     2. To perceive by the sense of feeling.
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              Nothing but body can be touched or touch. --Greech.
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     3. To come to; to reach; to attain to.
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              The god, vindictive, doomed them never more
              Ah, men unblessed! -- to touch their natal shore.
                                                    --Pope.
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     4. To try; to prove, as with a touchstone. [Obs.]
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              Wherein I mean to touch your love indeed. --Shak.
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     5. To relate to; to concern; to affect.
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              The quarrel toucheth none but us alone. --Shak.
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     6. To handle, speak of, or deal with; to treat of.
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              Storial thing that toucheth gentilesse. --Chaucer.
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     7. To meddle or interfere with; as, I have not touched the
        books. --Pope.
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     8. To affect the senses or the sensibility of; to move; to
        melt; to soften; especially, to cause feelings of pity,
        compassion, sympathy, or gratitude in.
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              What of sweet before
              Hath touched my sense, flat seems to this and harsh.
                                                    --Milton.
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              The tender sire was touched with what he said.
                                                    --Addison.
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     9. To mark or delineate with touches; to add a slight stroke
        to with the pencil or brush.
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              The lines, though touched but faintly, are drawn
              right.                                --Pope.
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     10. To infect; to affect slightly. --Bacon.
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     11. To make an impression on; to have effect upon.
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               Its face . . . so hard that a file will not touch
               it.                                  --Moxon.
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     12. To strike; to manipulate; to play on; as, to touch an
         instrument of music.
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               [They] touched their golden harps.   --Milton.
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     13. To perform, as a tune; to play.
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               A person is the royal retinue touched a light and
               lively air on the flageolet.         --Sir W.
                                                    Scott.
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     14. To influence by impulse; to impel forcibly. " No decree
         of mine, . . . [to] touch with lightest moment of impulse
         his free will," --Milton.
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     15. To harm, afflict, or distress.
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               Let us make a covenant with thee, that thou wilt do
               us no hurt, as we have not touched thee. --Gen.
                                                    xxvi. 28, 29.
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     16. To affect with insanity, especially in a slight degree;
         to make partially insane; -- rarely used except in the
         past participle.
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               She feared his head was a little touched. --Ld.
                                                    Lytton.
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     17. (Geom.) To be tangent to. See {Tangent}, a.
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     18. To lay a hand upon for curing disease.
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     19. To compare with; to be equal to; -- usually with a
         negative; as, he held that for good cheer nothing could
         touch an open fire. [Colloq.]
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     20. To induce to give or lend; to borrow from; as, to touch
         one for a loan; hence, to steal from. [Slang]
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     {To touch a sail} (Naut.), to bring it so close to the wind
        that its weather leech shakes.
  
     {To touch the wind} (Naut.), to keep the ship as near the
        wind as possible.
  
     {To touch up}, to repair; to improve by touches or
        emendation.
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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Touching \Touch"ing\, n.
     The sense or act of feeling; touch.
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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Touching \Touch"ing\ (t[u^]ch"[i^]ng), a.
     Affecting; moving; pathetic; as, a touching tale. --
     {Touch"ing*ly}, adv.
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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Touching \Touch"ing\, prep.
     Concerning; with respect to.
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           Now, as touching things offered unto idols. --1 Cor.
                                                    viii. 1.
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From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  touching
       adj : arousing affect; "the homecoming of the released hostages
             was an affecting scene"; "poignant grief cannot endure
             forever"; "his gratitude was simple and touching" [syn:
              {affecting}, {poignant}]
       n 1: the event of something coming in contact with the body; "he
            longed for the touch of her hand"; "the cooling touch of
            the night air" [syn: {touch}]
       2: the act of putting two things together with no space between
          them; "at his touch the room filled with lights" [syn: {touch}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  148 Moby Thesaurus words for "touching":
     about, abutting, adjoining, affecting, afflictive, against, anent,
     apropos of, as for, as regards, as respects, as to, attouchement,
     bitter, bleak, bordering, borrowing, brush, brushing, caress,
     caressing, cheerless, comfortless, compassionate, concerning,
     contact, contacting, conterminous, contiguous, contingence,
     contingent, debt, debtor, deplorable, depressing, depressive,
     discomforting, dismal, dismaying, distressful, distressing,
     doleful, dolorific, dolorogenic, dolorous, dreary, emotional,
     emotive, feeling, financing, fingering, friction, frottage, glance,
     glancing, graze, grazing, grievous, handling, heartrending,
     hire purchase, hitting, hitting-up, hocking, impingement,
     impingence, impingent, impinging, impressive, in connection with,
     in contact, in point of, in re, in reference to, in regard to,
     in relation to, in relation with, in respect to,
     installment buying, installment plan, joyless, juxtaposed, kiss,
     lamentable, manipulation, meeting, money-raising, mortgaging,
     mournful, moving, nudge, nudging, of, on, osculation, osculatory,
     overlapping, painful, palpation, pathetic, pawning, pertaining to,
     pertinent to, petting, piteous, pitiable, pitiful, pledging,
     poignant, pressure, re, referring to, regarding, regrettable,
     relating to, relative to, respecting, responsive, rub, rubbing,
     rueful, sad, saddening, sharp, sore, sorrowful, soul-stirring,
     speaking of, stirring, stroking, sympathetic, taction, tangency,
     tangent, tangential, tear-jerking, tender, tentative contact, to,
     touch, uncomfortable, up against, upon, with regard to,
     with respect to, woebegone, woeful, wretched