touching

• IPA^(key): /ˈtʌt͡ʃɪŋ/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʌtʃɪŋ
• Hyphenation: tou‧ching

From Middle English touchynge, equivalent to touch +‎ -ing.

touching

1. present participle and gerund of touch

touching (comparative more touching, superlative most touching)

1. Provoking sadness and pity; that can cause sadness or heartbreak among witnesses to a sad event or situation.

   a touching story

• emotional, moving, sad

touching

1. Regarding; concerning.
   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 1 Corinthians 8:1:

     Now as touching things offered vnto idoles, wee know that wee all haue knowledge.

   • 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:

     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.

• about, apropos, as for; See also Thesaurus:about

From Middle English touching, touchinge, touchynge, equivalent to touch +‎ -ing.

touching (plural touchings)

1. The act by which something is touched.
   • 2011, Lance J. Rips, Lines of Thought: Central Concepts in Cognitive Psychology, page 168:

     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.

2. (India, in the plural) A snack served with alcoholic drinks in an informal environment.

• ungothic