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1. Make physical contact with, come in contact with
   "Touch the stone for good luck"; "She never touched her husband"
    
2. Perceive via the tactile sense
   "Helen Keller felt the physical world by touching people and objects around her"
    
3. Affect emotionally
   "I was touched by your kind letter of sympathy";
   - stir
    
4. Be relevant to
   - refer, pertain, relate, concern, come to, bear on, touch on, have to do with
    
5. Be in direct physical contact with; make contact
   "The two buildings touch"; "Their hands touched";
   - adjoin, meet, contact
    
6. Have an effect upon
   "Will the new rules touch on me?";
   - affect, impact, bear upon, bear on, touch on
    
7. Deal with; usually used with a form of negation
   "I wouldn't touch her with a ten-foot pole"; "The local Mafia won't touch gambling"
    
8. Cause to be in brief contact with
   "He touched his toes to the horse's flanks"
    
9. To extend as far as
   "The chair must not touch the wall";
   - reach, extend to
    
10. Be equal to in quality or ability
    "Your performance doesn't even touch that of your colleagues";
    - equal, rival, match
     
11. Tamper with
    "Don't touch my CDs!";
    - disturb
     
12. Make a more or less disguised reference to
    - allude, advert [rare]
     
13. Comprehend
    "He could not touch the meaning of the poem"
     
14. Consume
    "She didn't touch her food all night";
    - partake
     
15. Colour lightly
    "her greying hair was touched blond";
    - tint, tinct, tinge

1. The event of something coming in contact with the body
   "the cooling touch of the night air"; "he longed for the touch of her hand";
   - touching
    
2. The faculty by which external objects or forces are perceived through contact with the body (especially the hands)
   "only sight and touch enable us to locate objects in the space around us";
   - sense of touch, skin senses, touch modality, cutaneous senses
    
3. A suggestion of some quality
   "there was a touch of sarcasm in his tone";
   - trace, ghost
    
4. A distinguishing style
   "this room needs a woman's touch";
   - signature
    
5. The act of putting two things together with no space between them
   "at his touch the room filled with lights";
   - touching
    
6. A slight but appreciable amount
   "this dish could use a touch of garlic";
   - hint, tinge, mite, pinch, jot, speck, soupçon
    
7. A communicative interaction
   "he got in touch with his colleagues";
   - contact
    
8. A slight attack of illness
   "he has a touch of rheumatism";
   - spot [informal]
    
9. The act of soliciting money (as a gift or loan)
   "he watched the beggar trying to make a touch"
    
10. The sensation produced by pressure receptors in the skin
    "she likes the touch of silk on her skin";
    - touch sensation, tactual sensation, tactile sensation, feeling
     
11. Deftness in handling matters
    "he has a master's touch"
     
12. The feel of mechanical action
    "this piano has a wonderful touch"

Derived forms: touching, touches, touched

See also: go, touch down

Type of: act, adeptness, adroitness, affect, alter, attack, be, care, change, color [US], color in [US], colorise [Brit], colorize [US], colour [Brit, Cdn], colour in [Brit, Cdn], colourise [Brit], colourize [Brit, Cdn], communicating, communication, compete, comprehend, consume, contact, contend, deal, deed, deftness, exteroception, facility, fashion, feel, handle, have, hint, human action, human activity, impinging, impress, ingest, manage, manner, mode, modify, move, perceive, perception, proffer, proposition, quickness, small indefinite amount, small indefinite quantity, solicitation, somatosense, strike, striking, style, suggest, suggestion, tactile property, take, take in, understand, vie, way

Part of: somaesthesia [Brit, Cdn], somaesthesis [Cdn], somataesthesis, somatesthesia, somatic sense, somatic sensory system, somatosensory system, somesthesia [N. Amer], somesthesis [N. Amer]

Encyclopedia: Touch, Peel & Stand