touchy
/ˈtʌt͡ʃi/
touchy adjective: extremely sensitive or volatile; easily disturbed to the point of becoming unstable; requiring caution or tactfulness.
Adjective
touchy (comparative touchier, superlative touchiest)
- Extremely sensitive or volatile; easily disturbed to the point of becoming unstable; requiring caution or tactfulness.
- It is an extremely touchy situation, with everybody's patience wearing thin.
- Eminent Americans are to be invited to direct by will their interment there; and in the case of Americans not so eminent as to be invited, but who have nevertheless expressed a wish to join the others, a committee will decide. It seems a touchy business all along...1927, Ernest Bramah [pseudonym; Ernest Brammah Smith], Max Carrados Mysteries
- Synonyms:
- tetchy, delicate, touch and go, scabrous
- Easily offended, oversensitive.
- He can be very touchy when you talk about his estranged son, so be as tactful as possible.
- I can assure you, Mr Hosier, that other people are much more touchy about my blindness than I am.1923, Ernest Bramah [pseudonym; Ernest Brammah Smith], “(please specify the page)”, in The Eyes of Max Carrados, London: Grant Richards, →OCLC
- Inclined to engage in physical touch.
- Synonyms:
- handsy, touchy-feely
- Antonyms:
- untouchy
Verb
touchy
- To touch.
- No need to mention the magical tree of knowledge which the idiot deity placed in front of its play beings thusly saying, "No. No touchy. (guffaw) No. Bad play beings. (snicker) No. You will suffer the ultimate punishment. No! (bwahahahaha). Don't!", wherein a talking snake convinces the female to...2001 September 1, Robert Templeton, “Evolution? Nope!”, in alt.talk.creationism (Usenet), archived from the original on 06 Aug 2026
- As to the definition of so called sober iety,^([sic]) as in clean and sober, we could use the definition the the^([sic]) National Treatment Center Study utilized in it's^([sic]) search for the truth no touchy the addictive substance for six months after treatment.2003 January 31, STAAMFA, “sobriety defined - the most inside of AA issues”, in alt.recovery.aa (Usenet), archived from the original on 06 Aug 2026
touchy meaning in Urdu, Malayalam, Kannada and Gujarati
touchy in Urdu
- حساس, نازک مزاج, ذود رنج
touchy in Malayalam
- മുൻകോപമുളള, ശീഘ്രകോപിയായ, സസൂക്ഷ്മം കൈകാര്യം ചെയ്യേണ്ടുന്ന, തൊട്ടാവാടിയായ
touchy in Kannada
- ಸುಲಭವಾಗಿ ಕೆರಳುವ, ಬೇಗ ತಪ್ಪು ತಿಳಿದುಕೊಳ್ಳುವ, ಅತಿಸೂಕ್ಷ್ಮ, ಅಸಂತುಷ್ಟಿಗೊಂಡ, ಅಪಮಾನಗೊಂಡ
touchy in Gujarati
- સ્પર્શકાતભર્યા
More languagesFewer languages
- touchy in Persian
- زود رنج zud-ranj
Synonyms of touchy
Antonyms
Forms of touchy
| comparative | touchier |
|---|---|
| superlative | touchiest |
Origin of touchy
A variant of earlier tetchy (“cranky, easily annoyed, difficult to handle”), under influence from some senses of touch (“affect, disturb”) and simulating touch + -y.
Words formed from touchy
Words that rhyme with touchy
Questions about touchy
- What does touchy mean?
- Touchy means extremely sensitive or volatile; easily disturbed to the point of becoming unstable; requiring caution or tactfulness.
- What is touchy in Urdu?
- Touchy in Urdu is حساس, نازک مزاج, ذود رنج. See Touchy meaning in Urdu.
- What part of speech is touchy?
- Touchy can be an adjective or a verb.
- How do you pronounce touchy?
- Touchy is pronounced /ˈtʌt͡ʃi/.
Words near touchy in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: touchy (page history and authors); touchy (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); touchy (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); touchy (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); touchy (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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-touchy.ogg.
Cite this entry: “touchy.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/touchy. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.