Strong waters pierce metals, and will touch upon gold, that will not
touch upon silver.
Bacon.
3. To treat anything in discourse, especially in a slight or casual
manner; — often with on or upon.
If the antiquaries have touched upon it, they immediately quitted it.
Addison.
4. (Naut) To be brought, as a sail, so close to the wind that its
weather leech shakes.
To touch and go (Naut.), to touch bottom lightly and without damage, as
a vessel in motion. — To touch at, to come or go to, without tarrying;
as, the ship touched at Lisbon. — To touch on or upon, to come or go to
for a short time. [R.]
I made a little voyage round the lake, and touched on the several towns
that lie on its coasts.
Addison.
Touch, n. [Cf. F. touche. See Touch, v. ] 1. The act of touching, or
the state of being touched; contact.
Their touch affrights me as a serpent's sting.
Shak.
2. (Physiol.) The sense by which pressure or traction exerted on the
skin is recognized; the sense by which the properties of bodies are
determined by contact; the tactile sense. See Tactile sense, under
Tactile.
The spider's touch, how exquisitely fine.
Pope.
Pure tactile feelings are necessarily rare, since temperature
sensations and muscular sensations are more or less combined with them.
The organs of touch are found chiefly in the epidermis of the skin and
certain underlying nervous structures.