touch off
Britishverb
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to cause to explode, as by touching with a match
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to cause (a disturbance, violence, etc) to begin
the marchers' action touched off riots
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Cause to explode or fire; also, initiate, trigger. For example, The boys touched off a whole line of firecrackers , or These disclosures will touch off a public uproar . This idiom comes from early firearms, which were set off by putting a light to the touch-hole. Its figurative use dates from the late 1800s.
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Depict very precisely, as in He touched off Teddy Roosevelt as well as it's ever been done . [Mid-1700s]
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
