touch and go

¹

noun

1. a precarious or delicate state of affairs:

   It was touch and go there for a while during the operation.

2. quick action or movement:

   the touch and go of city traffic.

touch-and-go

²

[ tuhch-uhn-goh ]

adjective

1. risky; precarious:

   a touch-and-go descent down the mountain.

2. hasty, sketchy, or desultory.

touch and go

adjective

1. touch-and-go when prenominal risky or critical

   a touch-and-go situation

touch and go

1. Uncertain or precarious: “The doctors told the patient that, even though her disease was in remission, from now on it was touch and go.”

Word History and Origins

Origin of touch and go¹

First recorded in 1645–55

Origin of touch and go²

First recorded in 1805–15

Idioms and Phrases

Extremely uncertain or risky, as in It was touch and go after the surgery; we were not sure he'd survive it , or It was touch and go but they finally gave me a seat on the plane . This idiom implies that a mere touch may cause a calamity. [Early 1800s]

Example Sentences

START ratification is touch-and-go, too, since, being a treaty, it requires a two-thirds majority to pass.

From The Daily Beast

And still the grizzled old skipper would go on, though it was touch-and-go every time a sequence of strong seas came howling down.

From Project Gutenberg

Saved me a bothering touch-and-go play to get you out here and seem innocent.

From Project Gutenberg

“Ay, if we are once free,” muttered the master, who was not at all of the touch-and-go school.

From Project Gutenberg

I was glad that when riding this road in the dark I had not realised it was in quite such a touch-and-go condition.

From Project Gutenberg

Watching our chances, the rest of us swarmed up between swells, but it was touch-and-go all the time and took a long while.

From Project Gutenberg