touches

1. 1
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of touch.

   He carefully touches the wet paint to see if it has dried.

   The long shadow touches the far wall by late afternoon.

   Note

   Here the subject is a single he, she, it or singular noun, and the time is the present. With an object it names deliberate contact (she touches the paint). Without one it says two things meet (the hem barely touches). Because it looks exactly like the noun plural, the sentence frame decides: a singular subject before it marks the verb.

2. 2
   noun

   Plural of touch.

   The designer added several elegant touches to the hotel lobby.

   A few personal touches turned the bare apartment into a home.

   Note

   A plural that mostly carries the countable uses of touch: separate acts of contact, or the small distinguishing details a maker adds, as in personal touches or finishing touches. The -es ending follows the ch, and the identical spelling also serves as the present-tense verb, so a touches after a determiner or adjective (these touches, elegant touches) is always the noun.

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