touching
Syllables: tou·ching/ˈtʌt͡ʃɪŋ/
touching is the present participle and gerund of touch.
Adjective
touching (comparative more touching, superlative most touching)
- Provoking sadness and pity; that can cause sadness or heartbreak among witnesses to a sad event or situation.
- a touching story
- In direct contact with.
- Synonyms:
- pertingent, juxtacrine
Noun
touching (plural touchings)
- The act by which something is touched.
- But we can also take a more analytical attitude to these displays, interpreting the movements as no more than approachings, touchings, and departings with no implication that one shape caused the other to move.2011, Lance J. Rips, Lines of Thought: Central Concepts in Cognitive Psychology, page 168
- A snack served with alcoholic drinks in an informal environment.
Meaning of touch
Verb
touch (third-person singular simple present touches, present participle touching, simple past and past participle touched or (obsolete) toucht)
- To make physical contact with; to bring the hand, finger or other part of the body into contact with.
- I touched his face softly.
- To come into (involuntary) contact with; to meet or intersect.
- Sitting on the bench, the hem of her skirt touched the ground.
- To come into physical contact, or to be in physical contact.
- They stood next to each other, their shoulders touching.
- To make physical contact with a thing.
- Please can I have a look, if I promise not to touch?
- To physically disturb; to interfere with, molest, or attempt to harm through contact.
- If you touch her, I'll kill you.
- To make intimate physical contact with a person.
- The man was arrested for touching a girl without her consent.
Preposition
touching
- Regarding; concerning.
- Now as touching things offered vnto idoles, wee know that wee all haue knowledge.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 1 Corinthians 8:1
- Every time I ascended to the deck from my watches below, I instantly gazed aft to mark if any strange face were visible ; for my first vague disquietude touching the unknown captain, now in the seclusion of the sea, became almost a perturbation.1851 November 14, Herman Melville, chapter 28, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC, page 134
Synonyms of touching
Forms of touching
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | more touching |
| superlative | most touching |
| Noun | |
| plural | touchings |
Origin of touching
From Middle English touchynge, equivalent to touch + -ing.
From Middle English touching, touchinge, touchynge, equivalent to touch + -ing.
Words formed from touching
Phrases with touching
- touching in
- touching on
- touching up
- bad touching
- touching off
- touching ball
- touching base
- touching down
- touching home
- touching upon
- touching wood
- touching balls
13 more phrasesFewer phrases
Words that rhyme with touching
Questions about touching
- What does touching mean?
- Touching means provoking sadness and pity; that can cause sadness or heartbreak among witnesses to a sad event or situation.
- What is touching the present participle and gerund of?
- Touching is the present participle and gerund of touch.
- What part of speech is touching?
- Touching can be an adjective, a preposition or a noun.
- How do you pronounce touching?
- Touching is pronounced /ˈtʌt͡ʃɪŋ/.
Words near touching in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: touching (page history and authors); touch (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:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-touching.ogg.
Cite this entry: “touching.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/touching. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.