touch
n. C / Un. The act of putting your hand or another body part on something. It is also one of your five senses, the one that lets you feel things through your skin.
n. The act or an instance of making physical contact. Uncountable when referring to the faculty of perception through the skin; countable for a specific instance of contact.
A gentle touch on the arm can be comforting.
The baby explored the new toy with a curious touch, feeling its different textures.
The chef added a final touch of salt, demonstrating that seasoning is as much about feel as it is about measurement.
From Middle English touchen, tochen, from Old French tochier (“to touch”) (whence Modern French toucher; compare French doublet toquer (“to offend, bother, harass”)), from Vulgar Latin tuccō (“to knock, strike, offend”), from Frankish tukkōn (“to knock, strike, touch”), from Proto-Germanic tukkōną (“to tug, grab, grasp”), from Proto-Indo-European dewk- (“to draw, pull, lead”). Largely displaced native Middle English rinen, from Old English hrīnan (whence Modern English rine). Doublet of tuck. Cognates Cognate with Old High German zochhōn, zuhhōn (“to grasp, take, seize, snatch”) (whence German zucken (“to jerk, flinch”)), German Low German tucken, tocken (“to fidget, twitch, pull up, entice, throb, knock, repeatedly tap”), Middle Dutch tocken, tucken (“to touch, entice”) (whence Dutch tokkelen (“to strum, pluck”)), Old English tucian, tūcian (“to disturb, mistreat”) (whence Modern English tuck). Compare also Old High German tokkōn, tockōn (“to abut, collide”). Outside Germanic, cognate to Albanian cek (“to touch”), Old Church Slavonic тъкнѫти (tŭknǫti). More at tuck, take.
Frequently used in idiomatic phrases like 'keep in touch' (to maintain communication) and 'a touch of' (a small amount).
Let's keep touch.Let's keep in touch.The common idiom for maintaining communication is 'keep in touch', which requires the preposition 'in'.
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common touch
The personal quality of showing understanding of and sympathy for the concerns of ordinary people; rapport with and acceptance by ordinary people, usually in a celebrity or leader.
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golden touch
Synonym of Midas touch (“the ability to achieve financial reward (or, more generally, success) easily and consistently”).
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human touch
The ability of a person to deal with others in a personable and empathetic way.