touching

Pluraltouchings (some meanings)

1. 1
   adjective

   Causing sadness and pity among those who witness a sad event or situation.

   The soldier's farewell to his children was a touching scene that left the platform in tears.

   She delivered a touching tribute to the colleagues lost in the accident.

   Similarmoving, poignant, affecting, heartbreaking

2. 2
   verb

   Present participle of touch.

   Touching the sculptures is strictly forbidden in this gallery.

   The toddler was touching everything within reach.

   Note

   One spelling does double duty here. As a participle it builds the progressive (was touching everything); as a gerund it names the action itself (Touching the sculptures is forbidden). The same form also became the moving adjective and the preposition meaning 'concerning'. A quick test: if more fits in front, as in more touching, the word is no longer the verb.

3. 3
   adjective

   In direct physical contact with something else, with no space separating them.

   The bookshelves stood touching the wall along the entire room.

   Make sure the two edges are touching before you apply the glue.

   Similarabutting, flush, adjoining

   Oppositeapart, separate

4. 4
   noununcountable

   The act of making physical contact with something or someone.

   The careful touching of the fragile petals revealed how soft they were.

   Repeated touching of the wound slowed its healing considerably.

   Similarhandling, contact

   Note

   As a noun it can be counted, so each separate contact becomes one item in a series. Lance J. Rips, in Lines of Thought (2011), describes moving shapes as "approachings, touchings, and departings." That plural looks exactly like the Indian word for drinking snacks. Context tells them apart: one names contacts, the other names something you eat.

5. 5
   preposition

   About or in reference to a particular matter under discussion.

   The letter offered little guidance touching the question of inheritance.

   Witnesses were asked to give their accounts touching the events of that night.

   Similarconcerning, regarding, about, respecting

   Note

   This preposition introduces the subject a thought or statement is about, and it has a long literary pedigree. The King James Bible of 1611 uses it in the pattern as touching: "as touching things offered unto idols." Herman Melville's Moby-Dick (1851) uses it bare, after a noun: "disquietude touching the unknown captain." In both, regarding or concerning could take its place.

6. 6
   nounIndiacountableplural

   A snack served alongside alcoholic drinks in an informal setting.

   Uncle opened a bottle of rum, and Aunty sent plates of touchings out from the kitchen.

   Friends lingered over their beers and a plate of warm touchings.

   Similarsnack, appetizer, nibble

   Note

   Indian English has its own word for the bites that keep company with a round of drinks, and it lives in the plural. People speak of a plate of touchings, or ask what touchings come with the beer, rather than asking for a single touching. The word belongs to relaxed drinking among friends, not to formal dining or restaurant menus.

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