 6 definitions found
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
touching
adjective: 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}]
noun
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 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 The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Touching \Touch"ing\ (t[u^]ch"[i^]ng), adjective
Affecting; moving; pathetic; as, a touching tale. --
{Touch"ing*ly}, adverb
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Touching \Touch"ing\, preposition
Concerning; with respect to.
Now, as touching things offered unto idols. --1 Cor.
viii. 1.
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Touching \Touch"ing\, noun
The sense or act of feeling; 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
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