sb. or vb. in combination.
1. a. Simple attrib. combinations of the sb., as touch-feeling, -knowledge, -pleasure, -sensation. b. Special combinations of the sb. (or in some cases directly from the vb.-stem): touch-bodies, -corpuscles Anat., minute bodies of connective and nervous tissue occurring in the skin of the hands, feet, lips, and other parts, supposed to be connected with the sense of touch; also called tactile corpuscles; touch-cell Anat., a nerve-cell at the end of a sensory nerve in a touch-corpuscle; touch judge, in Rugby Football, an umpire who marks when and where the ball goes ‘into touch’ (TOUCH sb. 12), corresponding to a linesman in the Association game; touch-key, name given to an instrument for scientific experiments on the sense of touch; touch-needle, a slender bar or rod of gold or silver, one of a set of different standards of fineness, used in conjunction with a touchstone for testing the fineness of gold or silver; touch-plate, one of a set of plates bearing the ‘touches’ or official marks of the company of pewterers (TOUCH sb. 5 b); † touch-point Geom., point of contact; touch-proof, in Sugar Manuf. a method of testing the degree of crystallization of the syrup by touching a drop of it, laid on the thumb, with the forefinger, and drawing it out to a thin thread; † touch-warden: see quot. 1676 (cf. TOUCH sb. 5, v. 8); also fig.; touch watch, a watch so contrived that the time by it can be ascertained by touch, e.g., in the dark; touch-weight, one of a set of weights used in experiments on the sense of touch. c. Connected with the notion of ready ignition: see TOUCH-POWDER; touch-pan, the pan of an old-fashioned gun, into which the touch-powder was put; touch-paper, paper steeped in nitre so as to burn slowly on being touched by a spark, used for firing gunpowder, etc.; touch-plate, the metal plate in which was the touch-hole of a culverin; touch-string, string steeped in nitre used as a fuse (cf. touch-paper). See also TOUCH-BOX, TOUCH-HOLE, TOUCHWOOD.
1889. Cent. Dict., s.v. Corpuscle, Tactile corpuscles … Also called … touch-corpuscles, *touch-bodies, palpation-corpuscles.
1897. Parker & Haswell, Zool., II. 100. Touch-corpuscles are formed of an ovoidal mass of connective tissue containing a ramified nerve, the terminal branches of which end in *touch-cells.
1876. Duhring, Dis. Skin, 26. Tactile corpuscles are also called *touch corpuscles.
1899. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., VI. 641. A trophic centre in a touch corpuscle.
1884. trans. Lotze’s Metaph., iv. 507, heading. How can *Touch-feelings form a series?
1893. Daily News, 14 Dec., 2/6. Messrs. Temple Gordon and Percy Christopherson were *touch judges.
1894. Westm. Gaz., 11 Jan., 5/3. Altogether 14 players were injured, the touch-judge was threatened, and the referee reported that it had never been his lot to witness such a shameful exhibition.
1905. Titchener, Exper. Psychol., II. I. 159. Fig. 60. Scripture’s *touch key.
1884. St. James’ Gaz., 13 June, 4/2. The true dealer’s *touch-knowledge of Oriental antiquities.
1763–6. W. Lewis, Comm. Phil.-Techn., 124. Accustoming himself to compare the colours of a good set of *Touch needles.
1884. F. J. Britten, Watch & Clockm., 266. Touch needles are small bars of gold, one each of all the different standards likely to be tested.
1591. Sylvester, Du Bartas, I. vii. 36. Down falls the Cock, up from the *Touch-pan flies A ruddy flash.
1750. Phil. Trans., XLVI. 449. Neither these, nor those of Cheltenham, will deflagrate or flash in *Touch-Paper.
1832. Miss Mitford, Village, Ser. V. 113. Why dost thou not fire?… So please your worship, the wind hath extinguished the touch-paper.
1873. E. Spon, Workshop Receipts, Ser. I. 131/2. Touchpaper … placed … round the mouth of the firework, and twisted into a point.
1778. Pryce, Min. Cornub., 178. [The miners] have a *touch-pipe, that is, rest … half an hour to smoke a pipe.
1508. Acc. Ld. High Treas. Scot., IV. 122. For vernesing of ane lang culveryn and gilting of the end of it and the *twich plaith.
1902. Welch, Hist. Pewterers’ Co., I. Introd. 1. The … inventories of the Company’s goods show that touch-plates existed at an early date.
a. 1618. Sylvester, Spectacles, xii. How soon doe Odours from thy Nostrils fly! How short, *touch-Pleasures (tipt with pain and fear)!
1602. Blundevil, Theoriques Seuen Planets, 29. The *Touch-point, otherwise called the point of concauitie. Ibid., 73. The right line BHP sheweth the Touch-point.
1899. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., VII. 35. The transmission of ordinary *touch sensations being unimpaired.
a. 1860. Alb. Smith, Lond. Med. Stud. (1861), 61. Crackers … contrived to explode at any period … by attaching graduated pieces of *touch-string to them.
1644. Bulwer, Chirol., 172. The grape of the Index [finger] … is … chiefe *Touch-warden to the King of the five senses.
1676. B. W[illis], Man. Goldsm., 30. The Wardens that are to make the Assays and mark the Silver, are now called the Touch-Wardens.
1862. Catal. Internat. Exhib., Brit., II. No. 3324. *Touch watches, regulators, and railway clocks.
1884. F. J. Britten, Watch & Clockm., 33. Blind Man’s Watch.… A watch in which the progress of the hands may be ascertained by touch…. The objection to this form of touch watch is that if the pointer is pressed hard against the finger it is apt to advance the hands of the watch.
1905. Titchener, Exper. Psychol., II. II. 46. The *Touch-Weights. Sets of these weights were made, a few years ago, by Willyoung.
2. Substantival phrases consisting a. of the vb. in combination with an advb.: touch-back (Rugby Football), the act of touching the ground with the ball on or behind the player’s own goal-line after it has been driven there by the opposing side; touch-down (Rugby Football), the act of touching the ground with the ball behind the goal-line, usually that of the opposing side; safety touch-down, the same done behind the player’s own goal-line after it has been driven there by his own side, in order to prevent the opposing side from making a touch-down; touch-up, an act of touching up (see TOUCH v. 34 a); a stroke added by way of improvement or finish; also a slight incitement or reminder; b. of the vb. with object; touch-no-wall, -s, Tennis: see quots.
a. 1864. Field, 29 Oct., 315/1. The School … obtaining two *‘touches down,’ which Poole … was unable to turn into a goal.
1895. Outing (U.S.), XXVII. 249/2. Canadian system of scoring…. A ‘touch-down’ or ‘try’ consists of four points with the privilege of trying a kick at the goal, which, if successful, nets the team which scored two points more.
1885. Athenæum, 1 Aug., 144/3. Tom Moore did not … give the great novelist a retrospective *touch-up with his poetic pencil.
1907. Times, 3 May, 4/1. I ask your lordship to give a sort of a kind of ‘touch-up’ to these people.
b. 1777. [T. Swift], Gamblers, I. 221. Now sounds the Grill; ’tis Setts, and Touch-no-wall, And Chaces echo thro’ the lattic’d Hall.
18[?]. Laws Tennis, 33, in J. Marshall, Ann. Tennis (1878), 166. When the odds of touch-no-walls, or touch-no-side-walls, are given, a ball returned by the giver of the odds, which makes a nick, is counted for the striker.
1878. J. Marshall, Ann. Tennis, 160. Touch-no-walls, or All-the-walls: a point of cramped-odds, by which the giver of the odds loses a stroke whenever a ball, returned by him, touches a wall or a gallery-post, or enters an opening, before falling on the floor.
