Adjacent Words

Touching definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

TOUCHING, ppr. tuch'ing. Coming on contact with; hitting; striking; affecting.
1. Concerning; relating to; with respect to.
Now as touching things offered to idols-- 1 Corinthians 8.
2. a. Affecting; moving; pathetic.
TOUCHING, n. tuch'ing. Touch; the sense of feeling.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

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]

Merriam Webster's

I. preposition Date: 14th century in reference to ; concerning II. adjective Date: 1601 capable of arousing emotions of tenderness or compassion Synonyms: see moving • touchingly adverb

Oxford Reference Dictionary

adj. & prep. --adj. moving; pathetic (a touching incident; touching confidence). --prep. literary concerning; about. Derivatives: touchingly adv. touchingness n. Etymology: ME f. TOUCH: (prep.) f. OF touchant pres. part. (as TOUCH)

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

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 1913 Dictionary

Touching Touch"ing, a. Affecting; moving; pathetic; as, a touching tale. -- Touch"ing*ly, adv.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Touching Touch"ing, prep. Concerning; with respect to. Now, as touching things offered unto idols. --1 Cor. viii. 1.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Touching Touch"ing, n. The sense or act of feeling; touch.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

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

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

I. a. Affecting, moving, melting, pathetic, tender. II. prep. Concerning, regarding, respecting, with regard to, with respect to, in relation to, relating to.

Moby Thesaurus

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