ppl. a. [UN-1 8.]
I. 1. Not touched with the hand (finger, foot, etc.): not handled or treated by hand, etc.
1382. Wyclif, 2 Kings xxiii. 18. The citeȝeens … vntouchid laften the boonys of hym.
c. 1440. Pallad. on Husb., VI. 4. Now euery grayne almeest hath floures swete; Vntouched now the tilman let hem growe.
1502. Atkynson, trans. De Imitatione, I. xiii. (1893), 162. A bell untouchyd is not perfytely knowen whether it be hole … or dyscrased.
a. 1586. Sidney, Arcadia, III. xvi. I pray you … to let my maides take my body untouched by you.
1673. [R. Leigh], Transp. Reh., 43. Romances are thumb’d more than … Gondibert is Dogs-ear’d, while the Rabbies are untoucht.
1697. Dryden, Æneis, X. 1173. Untouched thy arms, untaken be thy sword.
1725. Pope, Odyssey, II. 396. Untouch’d and sacred may these vessels stand Till great Ulysses views his native land.
1801. Scott, Glenfinlas, xxxviii. Untouch’d, the harp began to ring.
1816. J. Wilson, City of Plague, I. ii. 26. Buy poison, and ’twill lie for years untouch’d Beneath thy pillow.
1877. Huxley, Physiogr., p. viii. The manuscript remained untouched until last year.
b. Not touched by another body, etc.; † spec. (quot. 1730), unmagnetized.
a. 1595. Southwell, Mæoniæ, Christ’s Bloody Sweat, 3. Fat soile, full spring, sweete oliue, grape of blisse, Vntil’d, vndrawne, vnstampt, vntoucht of presse.
1730. Phil. Trans., XXXVI. 295. Of Touched Iron or Steel (or of Untouched, so long as it remains in a Posture which gives it Polarity).
1736. Thomson, Liberty, IV. 416. Even yet untouch’d by daring keel, be theirs The vast Pacific.
c. Not approached, crossed, or traversed.
1628. May, Virg. Georg., III. 75. Let us follow the Woods, and Lands Vntouch’d.
1729. T. Innes, Crit. Essay, I. 28. The northern wall … was of no use at all to keep off the enemies, who leaving it untouch’d, passed easily over the narrow Friths.
1882. H. S. Holland, Logic & Life, 50. We are carried forward to explore new regions of our souls as yet untouched and untrodden.
2. Not affected physically, esp. in an injurious manner; not damaged, harmed, or meddled with; unhurt, uninjured; intact. Const. by, † of.
c. 1400. Found. St. Bartholomew’s, 62. Of an howse vntouchid yn myddyl of the fyer.
c. 1440. Jacob’s Well, 183. His suster … be þe vertu of schryfte, was vntowchyd of þe fyir.
1526. Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 136 b. Whiche came out safe & vntouched of ye fyre.
1571. Golding, Calvin on Ps. xvi. 10. No one [of the faithful] becommeth partaker of incorruptible lyfe, untowched of rotting.
1603. Knolles, Hist. Turks (1621), 101. The Sultan … polluted the sepulchre of our blessed Sauiour,… of all nations vntouched & reuerenced.
1666. Boyle, Orig. Forms & Qual., 112. The Rudiments of the Chick … is nourish’d … onely by the White of the Egg…. In effect you may see the Chick furnish’d not onely with all the necessary, but divers other parts,… whilst the Yolk seems yet as it were untouch’d.
1690. Dryden, Don Sebastian, V. ii. Untouch’d, and Seal’d, as when intrusted with me, Such I restore it [sc. a paper].
1736. Thomson, Liberty, II. 246. Then stood untouch’d the solid base Of Liberty, the Liberty of Mind.
1749. Johnson, Van. Hum. Wishes, 35. Untouch’d his Cottage, and his Slumbers sound, Tho’ Confiscation’s Vulturs clang around.
1820. Shelley, Hope, Fear, & Doubt, 9. Nor did I hope to pass Untouched by suffering, through the rugged glen.
1856. Kane, Arct. Expl., I. 317. We landed at the point where we left our life-boat a year ago, and to our great joy found it untouched!
1890. Oman, Hist. Greece, 303. The plague had left the rest of Greece almost untouched.
† b. Not having had sexual connections; immaculate, chaste, undefiled. Obs.
c. 1400. Found. St. Bartholomew’s, 49. She skapid vntowchid.
c. 1450. Myrr. our Ladye, 171. O vntouwched mother of the kynge of peace. Ibid., 296. Yet that maydes wombe is alway vntowched.
1577. trans. Bullinger’s Decades, 62/2. The vntouched Virgine Marie.
1621. Lady M. Wroth, Urania, 343. Shee loues the Prince of Iambolly much better then the King;… yet on my conscience shee is vntouched, and iust to her Husband.
a. 1649. Drumm. of Hawth., Hist. Jas. II., Wks. (1711), 31. The earl … sought … to have her in marriage, alledging her untouched of his brother.
1683. Dryden, trans. Ovid, Helen to Paris, 30. Rude force might some unwilling Kisses gain, but that was all he ever could obtain…. Untouch’d the Youth restor’d me to my friends.
c. Not used at all, left intact; esp. not partaken of, untasted.
1538. Elyot, Illibatus, vntouched, vntasted.
1577. B. Googe, Heresbach’s Husb., 36. Lupines,… for the bitternesse thereof whyle it is greene, they [sc. cattle] leaue vntouched.
a. 1589. Mascall, Govt. Cattle (1596), 69. Cattell … leaue many tufts of grasse here and there vntouched.
1610. Holland, Camden’s Brit., I. 303. Choosing rather … to send away whole dishes vntouched, than other commers vnbidden to call for more viands.
1666. Earl Orrery, St. Lett. (1742), 184. The 10,000 l. stock … I humbly beg your grace will keep … untouched to answer a dead lift with.
1679. Pepys, Mem. Royal Navy (1906), 5. A further Reserve [of Supplies] remain’d untoucht in Magazine.
1725. Pope, Odyssey, X. 447. Untouch’d before thee stand the cates divine.
1798. J. Naismith, Agric. Clydesdale, 93. The pastures are allowed to grow untouched, from … May to … August.
a. 1828. Arab. Nts. (1853), 328. A great quantity of provisions left untouched.
1839. Thackeray, Fatal Boots, Dec. That famous rum-punch … which she and my sisters left untouched.
1863. Miss Braddon, Aurora Floyd, ii. He had sent his dinner away untouched.
3. Not worked upon or at; not touched or treated by way of improvement, alteration, operation, etc.
1726. Leoni, trans. Alberti’s Archit., I. 39/1. I am … for preserving the old Structures untoucht.
1736. T. Prince, N. Eng. Chronol., II. II. 231. The General Frame of Diocesan Episcopacy had no doubt remain’d untouched.
1815. J. Smith, Panorama Sci. & Art, II. 778. In engraving upon copper, every part which is to be white must be left untouched.
1833–4. Encycl. Metrop. (1845), VI. 706/1. The mighty forests of America, untouched by human industry.
1862. Catal. Internat. Exhib., Brit., II. No. 3168, Untouched and coloured photographs.
1884. Thompson, Tumours of Bladder, 41. [He] found a large tumour, which, after consultation, was left untouched.
II. 4. Not dealt with in discourse, etc.; not treated, written about, or spoken of; unmentioned. Also with upon.
c. 1380. Wyclif, Sel. Wks., III. 362. Þus no þing untouchid in þis lawe shulde be dun or axid to do. Ibid. (1382), Joshua viii. 35. No thing … that Moyses comaundide, he left vntowchyd; but alle thingis he openyde [1388 declaride] before al the multitude.
1532. More, Confut. Tindale, Wks. 609/2. Wherein whoso consider what I haue aunswered hym, shal … perceiue that it had been better for him to haue lefte that matter vntouched.
1594. Shaks., Rich. III., III. vii. 19. I … left nothing … Vntoucht, or sleightly handled in discourse.
1667. Boyle, Orig. Forms & Qual. (ed. 2), 293. The nature of our present discourse forbids me to leave it altogether untouch’d.
1697. [C. Leslie], Snake in Grass (ed. 2), 307. In his Answer … he passes this Section of their Diabolical Possessions, wholly untouch’d.
1793. Wordsw., Descrip. Sketches, Ded. ¶ 4. I might have inscribed to you a description of some of the features…. But the Alpine steeps of the Conway … remain yet untouched.
1841. Spalding, Italy & It. Isl., I. 150. The earliest progress of Grecian art … must here be left untouched.
1866. G. Stephens, Runic Mon., I. p. vi. The comparatively few hitherto almost untoucht and unredd older or Old-Northern Runic pieces.
1900. Handbk. Austral. Assoc., Melbourne, 74. The aquatic worms are an untouched group.
(b) 1746. Eliza Heywood, Female Spect., No. 24 (1748), IV. 319. They will needs have us take up the pen again, and promise to furnish us with a variety of topics yet untouched upon.
1856. Carlyle, Lett. Emerson (1883), II. 258. I must end, in mid-course; so much still untouched upon.
5. Not affected, modified, or influenced, esp. in a prejudicial or adverse manner.
a. 1586. Sidney, Def. Earl Leicester, Wks. 1923, III. 67. If awncient undouted and untouched nobility bee worthi to match with the most noble hows that can bee.
1593. Sidney’s Arcadia, V. (1622), 475. How can any lawes … be obserued, if the law-giuers, and law-rulers bee not held in an vntouched admiration?
1696. Prior, Presented to King, 32. Be William’s Life untouch’d, as is his Fame.
1699. Bentley, Phal., 232. In the third Verse … Mr. Stanley corrected it…, as appears by his Translation, utile; the other word he leaves untouch’d.
1732. Berkeley, Alciphr., I. § 9. I will shew you … That whatever was sound and good we leave untouched, and encourage it to grow in the Mind of Man.
1761. Sterne, Tr. Shandy, IV. xxix. In the case cited,… where patriae is put for patris, filia for filii, and so on—as it is a fault only in the declension, and the roots of the words continue untouched.
a. 1763. W. King, Anecd. (1818), 163. Clodia … was descended from an old Patrician family…. Her behaviour was modest, and her reputation untouched.
1894. H. Drummond, Ascent Man, 182. [In North Queensland you] will find the child of Nature still untouched, and neither by intercourse nor imitation removed by one degree from the lowest savage state.
b. Not affected or prejudiced in mind or feeling; not biassed or moved by excitement or emotion; unmoved, undisturbed, calm.
1616. T. Adams, Div. Herball, 89. Some Sage, honest policie;… such as may stand with an vntouched conscience.
1697. Vanbrugh, Æsop, I. i. Is it possible any thing that I am Father of, can be untouch’d with so much Merit?
1709. Steele & Swift, Tatler, No. 71, ¶ 4. If a Man could be untouched at so warm an Accusation.
1748. Richardson, Clarissa, VII. i. 3. The roughest and most untouched creature that ever enter’d a sick man’s chamber.
1768–74. Tucker, Lt. Nat. (1834), II. 678. Every one proceeding by a softness and milkiness of temper, untouched by injuries, unmoved at offences.
1805. Wordsw., Prelude, V. 182. Think not that I could pass along untouched By these remembrances.
1838. Lytton, Alice, I. x. Her heart is as yet untouched;—if she can love you, may you deserve her affection.
1876. Miss Braddon, J. Haggard’s Dau., II. 60. The young people were … untouched by the blighting influence of this aggrieved spinster.
6. Not equalled in respect of excellence or high character; unexampled, unparalleled.
1736. Thomson, Liberty, II. 194. Greece in their view, and glory yet untouch’d, Their steady column … held its way Triumphant.
1878. Grosart, H. More’s Poems, p. xxxiii. I have been struck with the untouched perfection of all that arrests you in reading.
7. Not entered upon; not begun.
1876. Coursing Cal., 21. The day finished at dusk, with only twenty-seven trials, leaving the all-aged stake untouched.
