Word.ws English Dictionary

light the touch-paper

light the touch-paper verb: to stir people up; to cause anger or excitement.

Verb

light the touch-paper (third-person singular simple present lights the touch-paper, present participle lighting the touch-paper, simple past and past participle lit the touch-paper or lighted the touch-paper)

  1. (figuratively) To stir people up; to cause anger or excitement.

Forms of light the touch-paper

third-person singular presentlights the touch-paper
present participlelighting the touch-paper
past participlelit the touch-paper
pastlit the touch-paper
past participlelighted the touch-paper
pastlighted the touch-paper
alternative formlight the blue touchpaper

Questions about light the touch-paper

What does light the touch-paper mean?
Light the touch-paper means to stir people up; to cause anger or excitement.
What part of speech is light the touch-paper?
Light the touch-paper is a verb.
What is the past tense of light the touch-paper?
The past tense of light the touch-paper is lit the touch-paper.

Words near light the touch-paper in the dictionary

  1. light switches
  2. light table
  3. light tables
  4. light the blue touchpaper
  5. light the fuse
  6. light the touch-paper
  7. light the touchpaper
  8. light therapies
  9. light therapy
  10. light time
  11. light times

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: light the touch-paper (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “light the touch-paper.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/light_the_touch-paper. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.