Word.ws English Dictionary

touching up

touching up is the present participle and gerund of touch up.

Meaning of touch up

Verb

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

  1. (idiomatic, transitive) To make slight corrections or adjustments to; to fill in or perfect.
    • Use a small brush to touch up the paint anywhere it is uneven.
  2. (UK, idiomatic, transitive) To fondle or to grope someone, usually in an inappropriate way.
    • The creep was trying to touch up my girlfriend.
    Synonyms:
    caress, feel up, pet

Questions about touching up

What is touching up the present participle and gerund of?
Touching up is the present participle and gerund of touch up.

Words near touching up in the dictionary

  1. touching some grass
  2. touching someone's hem
  3. touching someone's robe
  4. touching the hem of someone's garment
  5. touching the hem of someone's robe
  6. touching up
  7. touching upon
  8. touching wood
  9. touchingly
  10. touchingness
  11. touchings

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: touching up (page history and authors); touch up (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.

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Cite this entry: “touching up.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/touching_up. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.