touch

Meanings

Verb

  • Primarily physical senses.
  • Primarily non-physical senses.
  • To try; to prove, as with a touchstone.
  • To mark or delineate with touches; to add a slight stroke to with the pencil or brush.
  • To infect; to affect slightly.
  • To strike; to manipulate; to play on.
  • To perform, as a tune; to play.
  • To influence by impulse; to impel forcibly.

Noun

  • An act of touching, especially with the hand or finger.
  • The faculty or sense of perception by physical contact.
  • The style or technique with which one plays a musical instrument.
  • The particular or characteristic mode of action, or the resistance of the keys of an instrument to the fingers.
  • A distinguishing feature or characteristic.
  • A little bit; a small amount.
  • The part of a sports field beyond the touchlines or goal-lines.
  • A relationship of close communication or understanding.
  • The ability to perform a task well; aptitude.
  • Act or power of exciting emotion.
  • An emotion or affection.
  • Personal reference or application.
  • A single stroke on a drawing or a picture.
  • A brief essay.
  • A touchstone; hence, stone of the sort used for touchstone.
  • Examination or trial by some decisive standard; test; proof; tried quality.
  • The broadest part of a plank worked top and but, or of one worked anchor-stock fashion (that is, tapered from the middle to both ends); also, the angles of the stern timbers at the counters.
  • The children's game of tag.
  • A set of changes less than the total possible on seven bells, i.e. less than 5,040.
  • An act of borrowing or stealing something.
  • Tallow.
  • Form; standard of performance.
  • A disposal of the ball during a game, i.e. a kick or a handball.

Origin

  • From Middle English touchen, tochen, from Old French tochier (whence Modern French toucher; compare French doublet toquer), from Vulgar Latin *tuccō, from Frankish *tukkōn, from Proto-Germanic *tukkōną, from Proto-Indo-European *dewk-. Displaced native Middle English rinen, from Old English hrīnan" (whence Modern rine); Middle English repen, from Old English hrepian.
  • Cognate with Old High German zochhōn, zuhhōn (whence German zucken ("to jerk, flinch")), German Low German tucken, tocken, Middle Dutch tocken, tucken (whence Dutch tokkelen ("to strum, pluck")), Old English tucian, tūcian (whence Modern tuck). Compare also Old High German tokkōn, tockōn. Outside Germanic, cognate to Albanian cek ("to touch"), Old Church Slavonic тъкнѫти. More at tuck, take.

Modern English dictionary

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