touche

touch (oneself)

euphemistic slang To masturbate. My ultra-religious aunt scared us silly when we went through puberty with all sorts of myths about what would happen if we touched ourselves.

touch a (raw) nerve

To evoke a strong emotional reaction, such as anger, sadness, or disgust, upon being encountered, heard, read, etc. Your column must have touched a nerve, because we are getting slammed with feedback from readers—and they're not happy. I could tell he was touching a raw nerve when he brought up Jane's former employer and Jane went silent for a moment.

touch down

To land; to make contact with the ground. We couldn't touch down due to ice on the runway. The storm is expected to touch down sometimes around 2 AM.

See also: down, touch

touch (something) up

To fix minor flaws in or make minor changes to something I'd just like to touch up my makeup before we leave. All you need to do is touch the wall up with a bit of spackle and paint, and it will be as good as new!

finishing touch

The last detail added or change made to something to make it complete. Let's not spend too much longer on this. Let's just put the finishing touch on it and get it ready for production. He's been putting the finishing touches on that painting for so long now, I'm starting to think he'll never be satisfied with it.

touch (on) all (the) bases

To include, make reference to, or take action on every desired or required element or aspect (of something). The essay touches all bases, but it doesn't do much to elaborate on them or introduce any new insights. For fans of the genre, the film touches on all the bases.

touch (one) on the raw

To evoke a strong emotional reaction in someone, especially anger, sadness, or disgust. Your column must have touched the mayor on the raw, because we've been served with a defamation lawsuit from his office. I could tell he was touching Jane on the raw when he brought up her former employer and Jane went silent for a moment.

touch (one's) forelock

To show excessive deference toward someone in a superior position. An allusion to the former act of pulling one's frontmost hair in lieu of having a hat to tip. I hate being in meetings with the CEO because then I have to witness all of the regional managers touching their forelocks like fawning sycophants.

finishing touch(es)

a final adjustment of something; some effort or action that completes something. Norm is in his workshop putting the finishing touches on his latest project.

touch down

[for an airplane] to come in contact with the ground; to land. Flight twelve is due to touch down at midnight. When will this plane touch down?

See also: down, touch

finishing touch

A small change or addition that serves to complete something. For example, The room still needed a few finishing touches, such as a flower arrangement. This expression is sometimes put as a finishing stroke. [c. 1700]

touch down

Land on the ground, as in The spacecraft touched down on schedule. This idiom was first recorded in 1935.

See also: down, touch

touch down

To make contact with the ground; land: The tornado touched down in a remote area.

See also: down, touch

References in classic literature ?

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.

View in context

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

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.

But looking round at the door, and seeing this dejected figure, he turns back to it, touches it with a mild hand, says 'Good night

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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.