touche


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touché

Used to acknowledge that the other person's retort, counterpoint, or repartee was especially appropriate or well made. From French, literally, "touched," used in fencing to acknowledge that a scoring hit has been made. A: "You don't have a driver's license? How lame." B: "Hey, at least I don't still live in my parents' basement." A: "Touché." A: "Look, we wouldn't be so behind schedule if you hadn't changed the design specs at the very last minute!" B: "OK, touché. I guess I was partly responsible."
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2022 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.
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References in classic literature ?
*God has given it to me, let him who touches it beware!
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The first of these touches conveyed that the written statement took up the tale at a point after it had, in a manner, begun.
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It is the shadow of pain which touches the young face with such pathetic patience, but Beth seldom complains and always speaks hopefully of `being better soon'.
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"There, now, that'll do," she said, taking up a hair-brush; "now for a few fancy touches."
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One day, however, Monsieur Stangerson, as he was leaving the Academy of Science, announced that the marriage of his daughter and Monsieur Robert Darzac would be celebrated in the privacy of the Chateau du Glandier, as soon as he and his daughter had put the finishing touches to their report summing up their labours on the "Dissociation of Matter." The new household would install itself in the Glandier, and the son-in-law would lend his assistance in the work to which the father and daughter had dedicated their lives.
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* NOTE.--Wherever the Report touches on the events of the birthday, or of the three days that followed it, compare with Betteredge's Narrative, chapters viii.
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His features were so entirely destitute of expression that I could not help saying to myself--helplessly, as if in the clutches of a night-mare-- "they are only penciled in: no final touches as yet!" And he had a way of ending every sentence with a sudden smile, which spread like a ripple over that vast blank surface, and was gone in a moment, leaving behind it such absolute solemnity that I felt impelled to murmur "it was not he: it was somebody else that smiled!"
Here, in the foreground, a few clear touches are not amiss: but a back-ground without mist, you know!
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You don't know what you mean any more than the cat does, but the sentiment seems to imply a proper spirit on your part, and generally touches her feelings to such an extent that if you are of good manners and passable appearance she will stick her back up and rub her nose against you.
Vanity is one of those touches of nature that make the whole world kin.
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Now, there are these two curious touches of human nature working the secret springs of this dialogue.
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In the vignettes and other embellishments of some ancient books you will at times meet with very curious touches at the whale, where all manner of spouts, jets d'eau, hot springs and cold, Saratoga and Baden-Baden, come bubbling up from his unexhausted brain.
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discoloring and disfiguring whatever it represents, and transforming everything it touches into a monster.
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But the scullery you would not care to see; it is greasy, dirty, and odoriferous, while the stairs are in rags, and the walls so covered with filth that the hand sticks fast wherever it touches them.
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"And your majesty touches precisely the question," replied Athos, "for without the miracle of which I have had the honor to speak, General Monk would probably have remained an implacable enemy of Charles II.
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