touch-up

[ tuhch-uhp ]

/ ˈtʌtʃˌʌp /

Save This Word!

noun

an act or instance of touching up: Her makeup needed a touch-up.

QUIZ

THINGAMABOB OR THINGUMMY: CAN YOU DISTINGUISH BETWEEN THE US AND UK TERMS IN THIS QUIZ?

Do you know the difference between everyday US and UK terminology? Test yourself with this quiz on words that differ across the Atlantic.

Question 1 of 7

In the UK, COTTON CANDY is more commonly known as…

candystring

candyfloss

candypuff

TAKE THE QUIZ TO FIND OUT

Origin of touch-up

First recorded in 1880–85; noun use of verb phrase touch up

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use touch-up in a sentence

Very carefully and cleverly she began to whiten her face, to touch up her eyes and her narrow, definite eyebrows.
Bella Donna|Robert Hichens
With a similar snapper did Mr. Fogg touch up each one of his stories of success.
Blow The Man Down|Holman Day
Lady Archibald asked him if he was going to touch up her portrait at the last sitting.
The Life of James McNeill Whistler|Elizabeth Robins Pennell
Shakspeare might surely be allowed to touch up scenes, of which the mass might be written by Fletcher.
Notes and Queries, Number 71, March 8, 1851|Various

I'm going to have to touch up the tresses pretty soon or I won't be a redhead any more.
And Then the Town Took Off|Richard Wilson

British Dictionary definitions for touch-up

touch up

verb (tr, adverb)

to put extra or finishing touches to

to enhance, renovate, or falsify by putting extra touches toto touch up a photograph

to stimulate or rouse as by a tap or light blow

British slang to touch or caress (someone), esp to arouse sexual feelings

noun touch-up

a renovation or retouching, as of a painting

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Idioms and Phrases with touch-up