adjective
preposition
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of touching
Explanation
Something that is touching affects you emotionally—it makes you feel sad or tender. A touching video about baby hedgehogs might even make your stoic older sister cry. The adjective touching comes from a particular meaning of the verb touch, "to affect or move mentally or emotionally," from the idea that something has "touched" your mind or heart. Your book report might describe the story you read as touching if it left you wiping away a tear.
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.
Touching the handle after the hog line is not allowed.
From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 17, 2026
Touching the camera’s metal body could cause frostbite, forcing her to use a stabilizing cushion to separate the camera from her body at all times.
From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 9, 2026
Touching on her family’s reliance on government assistance, Shanahan said that, although she had become “very wealthy later on in life,” she felt she could relate to Americans being “just one misfortune away from disaster.”
From Seattle Times • Mar. 26, 2024
Touching on the pandemic, among other things, he said he hoped he led a "way through Covid which made people in Wales feel that they were being kept safe".
From BBC • Mar. 19, 2024
Touching him is order and chaos, like being assembled and disassembled at the same time.
From "The Sun Is Also a Star" by Nicola Yoon
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.
