Word.ws English Dictionary

touch and go

touch and go adjective: characterized by brief and transitory encounters.

Adjective

touch and go (comparative more touch and go, superlative most touch and go)

  1. (obsolete) Characterized by brief and transitory encounters.
    • Madam, I’m gone; no wonder, for you know,
      Lovers' encounters are but touch and go.1665, Richard Head, The English Rogue
  2. Precarious, delicate, risky, sensitive; of uncertain outcome (by analogy with a ship in shallow water).
    • His condition was touch and go for a time after the accident, but they think he will recover.
    • I could sense it was touch and go whether I could get the lay.

Verb

touch and go (third-person singular simple present touches and goes, present participle touching and going, simple past touched and went, past participle touched and gone)

  1. (obsolete) To briefly encounter before moving on.
    • As the text doth rise, I will touch and go a little in euery place, untill I come unto too much.1607, Hugh Latimer, “The first Sermon preached by M. Latimer before King Edward”, in Fruitfull Sermons Preached by the right Reuerend Father, and constant Martyr of Iesus Christ, M. Hugh Latimer...
  2. To touch bottom lightly and continue without damage, as a vessel in motion.
    • Whilst they were disputing the vessel touched the ground, but soon got off again.
      "Ay," says the captain, "he is a good pilot that can touch and go."1771, Francis Fleming, The Life and Extraordinary Adventures, the Perils and Critical Escapes, of Timothy Ginnadrake, that Child of checquer'd Fortune, volume 2, page 29
  3. To perform a touch-and-go landing.

touch and go meaning in Tamil, Malayalam and Kannada

touch and go in Tamil

பட்டும்படாத நிலை, உறுதியிலாத் தன்மை

touch and go in Malayalam

പ്രതീക്ഷയ്ക്കു വകയില്ലാത്ത, ഉറപ്പിക്കാനാവാത്ത, ക്ലേശകരമായ

touch and go in Kannada

ಅನಿಶ್ಚಿತ, ನಿರ್ಧಾರಮಾಡಲಾಗದ

Forms of touch and go

Adjective
comparativemore touch and go
superlativemost touch and go
Verb
third-person singular presenttouches and goes
present participletouching and going
pasttouched and went
past participletouched and gone

Origin of touch and go

The original sense, now obsolete, seems to have been that of brief encounters. The subsequent nautical sense then gave rise first to the abstract sense (indicating a hazardous situation) and later, by physical analogy, to the aeronautical sense.

Questions about touch and go

What does touch and go mean?
Touch and go means characterized by brief and transitory encounters.
What is touch and go in Tamil?
Touch and go in Tamil is பட்டும்படாத நிலை, உறுதியிலாத் தன்மை. See Touch and go meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is touch and go?
Touch and go can be an adjective or a verb.

Words near touch and go in the dictionary

  1. touch
  2. touch 'em all
  3. touch a chord
  4. touch a nerve
  5. touch a raw nerve
  6. touch and go
  7. touch assist
  8. touch assists
  9. touch base
  10. Touch Base Policy
  11. touch bases

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: touch and go (page history and authors); touch and go (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); touch and go (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); touch and go (Kannada Wiktionary) (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: “touch and go.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/touch_and_go. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.