touch wood

Verb

touch wood (third-person singular simple present touches wood, present participle touching wood, simple past and past participle touched wood)

1. (Commonwealth, Ireland, UK) To make contact with wood to avert bad luck, in accordance with a folk practice.
   • Touching wood possibly has reference to (a) the cross, or (b) the altar rails in days when criminals could take sanctuary in churches.1930, John D. Stephenson, chapter I, in The Structure of English from Sentence to Essay, page 105
   • Very few patients for whom I provided psychiatric treatment ended their lives by suicide, but I became increasingly convinced that my residency instructor who touched wood because none of his patients had killed themselves had not been treating many seriously mentally ill patients for any extended...2003, Chester Schneider, The Making of a Christian Psychiatrist, US: Xulon Press, page 193

   Synonyms:

   knock on wood

Interjection

1. (Australia, India, New Zealand, South Africa, UK, idiomatic) Hopefully; said while touching something wooden, to avert superstitious bad luck from what has just been said.
   • And the reds are going to avoid relegation this year, touch wood.
   • If it′s ever me (Jesus Christ, touch wood!), I don′t want you bringing me flowers.1988, Janette Turner Hospital, chapter I, in Charades, page 314

   Synonyms:

   knock on wood