TOUCHING DEFINITIONS - 11 definitions found
touching adj 1: 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, touching] 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, touching] 2: the act of putting two things together with no space between them; "at his touch the room filled with lights" [syn: touch, touching] Oxford English Reference Dictionary
Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner\'s English Dictionary touching If something is touching, it causes feelings of sadness or sympathy. Her story is the touching tale of a wife who stood by the husband she loved... = moving ADJ see also touch English Explanatory Dictionary touching ˈtʌtʃɪŋ adj. & prep. --adj. moving; pathetic (a touching incident; touching confidence). --prep. literary concerning; about. øøtouchingly adv. touchingness n. [ME f. TOUCH: (prep.) f. OF touchant pres. part. (as TOUCH)] Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) 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. 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. 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, a. 18. To lay a hand upon for curing disease. 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. Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) Touching \Touch"ing\, a. Affecting; moving; pathetic; as, a touching tale. -- Touch"ing*ly, adv. Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) Touching \Touch"ing\, prep. Concerning; with respect to. Now, as touching things offered unto idols. --1 Cor. viii. 1. Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) Touching \Touch"ing\, n. The sense or act of feeling; touch. Soule\'s Dictionary of English Synonyms touching I. a. Affecting, moving, melting, pathetic, tender. II. prep. Concerning, regarding, respecting, with regard to, with respect to, in relation to, relating to. English Explanatory Dictionary (Synonyms) touching ˈtʌtʃɪŋ adj. moving, stirring, emotional, tender, poignant, pathetic, soul-stirring, heart-rending, heart-breaking, sad, pitiful, distressing, distressful: The most touching scene is the one where the boy meets his father for the first time. Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 148 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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