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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Touch \Touch\, verb (used with an object) [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}, verb (used with an object), {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.
Him thus intent Ithuriel with his spear Touched lightly. --Milton.
2. To perceive by the sense of feeling.
Nothing but body can be touched or touch. --Greech.
3. To come to; to reach; to attain to.
The god, vindictive, doomed them never more Ah, men unblessed! -- to touch their natal shore. --Pope.
4. To try; to prove, as with a touchstone. [Obs.]
Wherein I mean to touch your love indeed. --Shak.
5. To relate to; to concern; to affect.
The quarrel toucheth none but us alone. --Shak.
6. To handle, speak of, or deal with; to treat of.
Storial thing that toucheth gentilesse. --Chaucer.
7. To meddle or interfere with; as, I have not touched the books. --Pope.
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. [1913 Webster +PJC]
What of sweet before Hath touched my sense, flat seems to this and harsh. --Milton.
The tender sire was touched with what he said. --Addison.
9. 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. --Pope.
10. To infect; to affect slightly. --Bacon.
11. To make an impression on; to have effect upon.
Its face . . . so hard that a file will not touch it. --Moxon.
12. To strike; to manipulate; to play on; as, to touch an instrument of music.
[They] touched their golden harps. --Milton.
13. To perform, as a tune; to play.
A person is the royal retinue touched a light and lively air on the flageolet. --Sir W. Scott.
14. To influence by impulse; to impel forcibly. '' No decree of mine, . . . [to] touch with lightest moment of impulse his free will,'' --Milton.
15. To harm, afflict, or distress.
Let us make a covenant with thee, that thou wilt do us no hurt, as we have not touched thee. --Gen. xxvi. 28, 29.
16. To affect with insanity, especially in a slight degree; to make partially insane; -- rarely used except in the past participle.
She feared his head was a little touched. --Ld. Lytton.
17. (Geom.) To be tangent to. See {Tangent}, adjective
18. To lay a hand upon for curing disease.
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.] [Webster 1913 Suppl.]
20. To induce to give or lend; to borrow from; as, to touch one for a loan; hence, to steal from. [Slang] [Webster 1913 Suppl.]
{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.
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
touched
adjective
1: being colored slightly; sometimes used in combination; "white petals touched with pink"; "the resplendent sun-touched flag"; "pink-tinged apple blossoms" [syn: {tinged}]
2: having come into contact [ant: {untouched}]
3: slightly insane [syn: {fey}, {touched(p)}]
4: emotionally affected; "very touched by the stranger's kindness" [syn: {affected(p)}, {stirred(p)}, {touched(p)}]
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
79 Moby Thesaurus words for "touched": abject, abnormal, affected, agonized, apologetic, bereft of reason, brainsick, contrite, crackbrained, cracked, crazed, crazy, daft, deluded, demented, deprived of reason, deranged, devoured by, disoriented, distraught, flighty, hallucinated, humble, humbled, imbued with, impressed, impressed with, insane, irrational, loco, lunatic, mad, maddened, manic, mazed, melted, mental, mentally deficient, meshuggah, moon-struck, moved, non compos, non compos mentis, not all there, not right, obsessed, obsessed by, odd, of unsound mind, off, penetrated with, penitent, penitential, penitentiary, psycho, queer, racked, reasonless, repentant, seized with, senseless, sheepish, sick, softened, stark-mad, stark-staring mad, strange, stricken, tetched, torn, tortured, unbalanced, unhinged, unsane, unsettled, unsound, wandering, witless, wracked
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