touch 
(e) A momentary manifestation or exhibition ; an indica- 
tion ; a view ; a peep ; a glimpse. 
One touch of nature makes the whole world kin. 
Shak., T. and C., iii. 3. 175. 
In the Trojan dames there re flne touches of nature with 
regard to Cassandra. 
Hanj. Fuller, Woman in 19th Century, p. 105. 
11. A trait or feature; a prominent or outstand- 
ing quality or characteristic. 
Neither ill touches should be left vnpuuished, nor ientle- 
[ne]sse in teaching anie wise omitted. 
Ascham, The Scholem aster, p. 48. 
But he had other touches of late Romans, 
That more did speak him : Pompey's dignity, 
The innocence of Cato, Caesar's spirit. 
B. Jonson, Sejanus, i. 1. 
12f. Manner; style; bearing. 
A certain touch, or air, 
That sparkles a divinity beyond 
An earthly beauty ! 
B. Jonson, Alchemist, iv. 1. 
13. The skill or nicety with which a performer 
uses his instrument; the peculiar manner in 
which an author uses his pen, an artist his 
brush, or a workman his tools ; characteristic 
skill or method of handling by which the artist 
or workman may be known ; execution ; manip- 
ulation; finish. 
Be of some good consort ; 
You had a pleasant touch o' the cittern once, 
If idleness have not bereft you of it. 
Hi-mi, and Fl., Captain, i. 3. 
The literary touch which it is so difficult to describe but 
so easy to recognise. Nineteenth Century, XXVI. 838. 
14. In pianoforte- and organ-playing, a method 
of depressing a digital or pedal so as to produce 
a tone of a particular qua! ity . The varieties of tone 
producible on modern instruments by varying the method 
of manipulation are numerous and at first sight astonish- 
ing. Much of the variety and effectiveness of keyboard 
technique is due to the elaborate study of this subject. 
Touch is described by various qualifying words, like stac- 
cato, legato, cantabile, etc. 
15t. Make; style; sort. 
The capteyn sent certeyn of his meyny to my chamber 
. . . and toke awey . . . j. herneyse [harness] complete 
of the touche of Milleyn ; and j. gowne of fyn perse blewe 
furryd with martens. Ponton Letters, I. 131. 
My sweet wife, my dearest mother, and 
My friends of noble touch. Shalt., Cor., iv. 1. 49. 
16. A thing, or a style of thing, involving the 
expenditure of a particular sum, or obtainable 
for such a sum : as, a penny touch. [Slang.] 
Sept. 22. At night went to the ball at the Angel, a guinea 
touch. Sir Erasmus Phillipps' Diary (1720). 
Print my preface in such form as, in the bookseller's 
phrase, will make a sixpenny touch. Swift. 
17. A musical note or strain. [Rare.] 
Soft stillness and the night 
Become the touches of sweet harmony. 
Shak., M. of V.,v. 1. 57. 
18f. Attack; animadversion; censure; blame. 
I never bare any touch of conscience with greater re- 
gret. Eikon Basilike. 
10f. Personal reference or allusion; person- 
ality. 
Speech of touch towards others should be sparingly 
used ; for discourse ought to be as a field, without coming 
home to any man. Bacon, Discourse (ed. 1887). 
20. A touchstone ; that by which anything is 
examined ; a test, as of gold by a touchstone ; 
a proof ; a criterion ; an assay ; hence, the stamp 
applied by the Goldsmiths' Company to a piece 
of plate testifying to its fineness: as, a gilt 
piece of the old touch (that is, of the stamp 
formerly in use). 
Fynd foure freres in a flok, that folweth that rewle 
Thanne haue y tynt al my tast, touche, and assaie. 
Piers Plowman's Crede, 1. 537. 
A day 
Wherein the fortune of ten thousand men 
Must bide the touch. Shak., 1 Hen. IV., iv. 4. 10. 
Your judgment, as it is the touch and trier 
Of good from bad. 
Middleton, Family of Love, Epil. 
Be of happy cheer ! 
For 'tis the nicest touch of human honour 
When some ethereal and high-favouring donor 
Presents immortal bowers to mortal sense. 
Keats, Endymion, ii. 
2 If. Some stone of a very durable character, 
suitable for preserving inscriptions or for fine 
monumental work. The confusion between touch- 
stone and touch, of which former word the latter seems 
to be a variant, Is due in part to the general inability 
of men (everywhere existing until very recent times) to 
distinguish one kind of stone from another, and in part 
to the confusion, dating back to a very early period, be- 
tween basanites and basaltes. See touchstone. 
Those other glorious notes, 
Inscribed in touch or marble, or the coats 
Painted or carved upon our great men's tombs. 
B. Jonson, The Forest, xii. 
6402 
22. In ship-building, the broadest part of a 
plank worked top and butt, or the middle of a 
plank worked anchor-stock fashion; also, the 
angles of the stern-timbers at the counters. 
23. In magnetism, the magnetization of a steel 
bar or needle by repeated contact with one or 
more magnets: single, double, and separate touch 
describe different methods. 24. In brll-riiuj- 
iiig, a partial series of changes. 25. Same as 
toccata. [Bare.] A near touch, an exceedingly nar- 
row miss or escape ; a close shave. [Colloq. ] 
The next instant the hind coach passed my engine by a 
shave. It was the nearest touch I ever saw. 
Dickens. (Imp. Diet.) 
Royal touch, the touch of the king, formerly applied as 
a remedy to persons suffering from scrofula. See king's 
evil (under em'Ji), and touchpiece.Tto keep touch, (a) To 
be or remain in contact or sympathy. (6t) To keep faith 
or one's appointment or engagement ; fulfil one's duty or 
functions. 
They keep no touch, they will talk of many gay things, 
they will pretend this and that, but they keep no promise. 
Latimer, 3d Sermon bef. Edw. VI., 1549. 
If Florence now keep touch, we shortly shall 
Conclude all fear with a glad nuptial. 
Shirley, Bird in a Cage, iv. 1. 
True as tOUCht, completely true. Spenser, F. Q., I. iii. 2. 
touchable (tuch'a-bl), a. [< touch + -able.'} 
Capable of being touched; tangible. Science, 
VII. 271. 
touchableness (tuch'a-bl-nes), n. The quality 
of being touchable ; tangibility. 
touch-and-go (tuch'and-go'), a. and -n. I. o. 
1. Of uncertain action or outcome; that may 
explode, go off, or come to a head on the least 
touch or provocation ; hence, ticklish ; uncer- 
tain: applied to persons, circumstances, or ac- 
tions. 
It was, as Bochford felt, touch and go, very delicate work 
with Sir Edward. Mrs. Olipha.nl, Poor Gentleman, xli. 
It was touch and go to that degree that they couldn't 
come near him, they couldn't feed him, they could scarce- 
ly look at him. The Century, XXXVI. 127. 
2. Hasty and superficial ; desultory. 
The allusive, touch-and-go manner. 
The Academy, March 3, 1888, p. 148. 
II. n. An uncertain or precarious state of 
affairs as regards the happening or not hap- 
pening of something. 
touch-body (tuch'bod ;l 'i), n. A tactile corpus- 
cle (which see, under corpuscle). 
touch-boxt (tuch'boks), n. A primer. 
Cocke, thy father was a fresh-water soldier, thou art not ; 
Thou hast beene powdred, witnesse thy flaxe & touch-box. 
Heyivood, Royal King (Works, ed. Pearson, 1874, VI. 13). 
touch-corpuscle (tuch'kor"pus-l), n. A touch- 
body. See corpuscle. 
touch-down (tuch'doun), n. In foot-ball, the 
touching of the ball to the ground by a player 
behind his opponent's goal ; the play by which 
this is done Safety touch-down, a touch-down 
made by one of the players behind his own goal when the 
ball was last touched by one of his own side. It is done 
for the purpose of preventing the making of a touch down 
by the other side. See foot-ball. 
toucher (tuch'er), M. [< touch + -)-i.] One who 
or that which touches; specifically, a skilful 
archer ; one who always hits the mark. 
Mammon, well follow'd ? Cupid, bravely led ; 
Both touchers; equal fortune makes a dead. 
Quarles, Emblems, i. 10, Epig. 
A near toucher, a close shave. [Slang.] 
It was a near toucher, though. 
Sala, Baddington Peerage, I. 188. (Uoppe.) 
As near as a toucher, almost exactly; very nearly; 
touch-and-go. [Slang.] 
And there we are in four minutes' time, as -near as a 
toucher. Dickens, Our Mutual Friend, iii. 13. 
touch-hole (tuch'hol), n. A small tubular open- 
ing through the thickness of the barrel of a gun, 
cannon, or pistol, by means of which fire is 
communicated to the charge within. 
Love's fire-arms here are since not worth a souse ; 
We've lost the only touch-hole of our house. 
Farquhar, Love and a Bottle, Epil. 
touchily (tuch'i-li), adv. [< touchy + -ly%. Cf. 
teehily.] In a touchy manner ; with irritation ; 
peevishly. 
touchiness (tuch'i-nes), n. [< touchy + -ness. 
Cf. techiness."] The character of being touchy ; 
peevishness ; irritability ; irascibility. 
touching (tuch'ing), p. a. [Ppr. of touch, .] 
Affecting; moving; pathetic. 
touching (tuch'ing), n. [Verbal n. of touch, .] 
The act of one who touches, in any sense. 
Touching of St. Thomas. Same as Low Sunday (which 
see, under loie'2). 
touching (tuch'ing), prep. [< ME. touchi/ni/. 
towcliyng ; prop. ppr. of touch, <., used ellipti- 
c-ally (after P. touchant similarly used) as a 
quasi-prep., like concerning, etc.] Concerning; 
touchstone 
relating to; with respect to: often preceded 
by as. 
The Sowdon sayde " as towchyny this mater, 
I wolle gladly be after your avise." 
Generydes (E. E. T. S.), 1. 1401. 
Now, as touching things offered unto idols. 
1 Cor. viii. 1. 
touchingly (tuch'iug-li), adv. In a manner to 
touch or move the passions ; feelingly ; affect- 
touchingness (tuch'ing-nes), n. The quality 
of being touching ; tenderness; pathos. 
touching-Stuff (tuch'ing-stuf), n. See stuff. 
touchless (tuch'les), a. [< touch + -less.'] 
Lacking the sense of touch. Huxley, Critiques 
and Addresses, p. 310. 
touch-linet (tuch'lin), n. A tangent. 
Our old word for tangent was touch-line. 
F. Hall, False Philol., p. 64. 
touch-me-not (tuch'me-not), n. [Equiv. to 
the NL. specific name Noli-tangere.] 1. A 
plant of the genus Impatieits, especially I. Noli- 
tangere, so called because the ripe seed-vessel 
explodes at the touch. 
Presbytery seeming like the plant called Touch me not, 
which flies in the face and breaks in the fingers of those 
that presse it. Up. Gauden, Tears of the Church, p. 19. 
[(Daoies.) 
2. Ill nied., a tubercular affection, occurring 
especially about the face; noli-me-tangere ; 
lupus. 
touch-needle (tuch'ne"dl), . One of a series 
of strips or needles of various alloys of gold, 
silver, and copper of known composition, used 
in testing the quality of gold by the use of the 
touchstone. The color of the streak of the alloy to be 
tested and its behavior with acid are compared with that 
of one or more, of the touch-needles. This method has 
been in use from very remote ages, and is not entirely 
obsolete. The Italian goldsmiths have a set, strung on a 
string, of twenty-four touch-needles, which are little bars 
of gold, each of a known and marked standard from one 
carat up to twenty-four. See touchstone. 
touch-pan (tuch'pan), n. The pan of an old- 
fashioned gun, as one having a flint-and-steel 
lock, into which powder was poured, communi- 
cating with that in the touch-hole. See cut 
under flint-lock. 
touch-paper (tuch'pa"per), n. Paper steeped in 
niter so that it catches fire from a spark and 
burns slowly, used for firing gunpowder and 
other explosives. 
tOUChpiece (tuch'pes), . A coin or medal pre- 
sented by the sovereigns of England to those 
whom they touched for the cure of the king's 
evil. Previous to 
the reign of Charles 
II. an English gold 
coin, the angel 
(see angel, 5, and 
angel-gold), was 
thus presented, but 
Charles II. substi- 
tuted a medalet, 
struck in gold and 
also in silver, bear- 
ing a general resem- 
blance to the angel. 
Similar medalets were given as touchpieces by James II., 
by Anne, and by the "Old Pretender" and his two sons. 
The piece figured is preserved by a New York family as 
commemorating the alleged cure of an ancestor by the 
royal touch in 1687. 
touchstone (tuch'ston), n. [< touch + stone.'] 
1. A very fine-grained dark-colored variety of 
schist or jasper, used for trying the quality of 
alloys of the precious metals. The alloy is rubbed 
on the stone, and the color of the streak is compared with 
that of various alloys of known composition prepared for 
that purpose and called touch-needles. It was formerly 
extensively used for ascertaining the fineness of gold, but 
the facility and rapidity with which exact assays are now 
made have rendered the touchstone a matter of much less 
importance. It was the " Lydian stone " of the ancients, 
under which name(Au8ia Ai'flos) it is mentioned and its use 
described by Bacchylides (about 450 B. c. ), while Theophras- 
tus calls it both the Lydian and the Heraclean stone (Aiflos- 
'HpaicAeia). BatrafcTT)?, ^aaa^'iT7)s Ai'0os, and jSaa-apos were 
names given to it by various Greek authors. It was the 
coticula of Pliny, whose basanites was a dark-colored, very 
compact igneous rock, probably a variety of basalt, basaltes 
and basanites having at a very early period become inex- 
tricably confused with each other in meaning. By some 
these words are believed to have been originally different : 
by others it is thought that basaltes was a corruption of 
basanites. 
All is not golde that hath a glistering hiew, 
But what the touchstone tries & flndeth true. 
Times' Whistle (E. E. T. S.), p. 136. 
The present Toiichstone is a black Jasper of a some- 
what coarse grain, and the best pieces come from India. 
King, Nat. Hist, of Gems and Decorative Stones, p. 153. 
2. Any test or criterion by which the qualities 
of a thing are tried: as, money, the touchstone 
of common honesty. 
Al tongues bear with sum slippes that can not abyde 
the tuich stone of true orthographic. 
A. Hume, Orthographie (E. E. T. S.), p. 19. 
Obverse. Re\ 
Gold Touchpiecc, James II. 
the original ) 
