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]
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
What she couldn’t have realized on that afternoon in the Dolomites was that her success would touch off a stunning gold rush for the rest of Team USA.
From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 23, 2026
Substitute Harvey Elliott put Liverpool back in front after 105 minutes, his 20-yard shot taking a crucial touch off substitute Christian Eriksen to swerve tantalisingly out of the reach of Onana.
From BBC • Mar. 17, 2024
Funding the raises could touch off far-reaching changes to UC’s traditional model of graduate student education, including potential reductions in teaching assistants and researchers.
From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 27, 2023
Though lightning bolts can readily touch off fires in the dry season, they do not pose as great a threat now because the storms have also soaked the landscape with huge amounts of rain.
From New York Times • Jan. 11, 2023
If he happened to be out on the reef, and I heard a plane, I could take a light from our campfire, follow the rope down, and touch off the big fire.
From "The Cay" by Theodore Taylor
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.
