touchy
Americanadjective
adjective
-
easily upset or irritated; oversensitive
-
extremely risky
-
easily ignited
Related Words
See irritable.
Other Word Forms
- touchily adverb
- touchiness noun
Etymology
Origin of touchy
First recorded in 1595–1605; variant of techy 2 (a variant of tetchy ( def. ) ), by association with touch
Explanation
Things that are touchy are hard to handle — not literally, but to talk about. Touchy subjects make people upset. There are a lot of touchy topics in life. Religion is a big one, since people have such different yet strong beliefs. Racism and sexism are touchy. Politics can be touchy. Asking someone how old they are or what they weigh are very touchy questions. Something is touchy if you need to handle it with kid gloves — or maybe avoid the topic altogether. People often use euphemisms — soft, evasive terms — for touchy subjects, to make discussing them easier.
Vocabulary lists containing touchy
The Catcher in the Rye
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Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life
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The Battle of the Labyrinth
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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.
One touchy subject he doesn’t evade: the push for racial diversity in orchestras.
From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 31, 2025
The creation — and Carter’s expansion — of Redwood National Park has long been a touchy subject along California’s rural, economically depressed North Coast, where the once-thriving logging industry cratered over the last half-century.
From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 9, 2025
"He captures Dylan's craning stance and the way he used hair and sunglasses as a mask, the insistent buzz and keen of his speaking and singing voice and the odd, touchy, insularity."
From BBC • Dec. 11, 2024
Do business people want to see that horse, now creaking with age and even more touchy and unpredictable, let loose in the ICU all over again?
From Salon • Sep. 8, 2024
But Al Ulbrickson wasn’t one to waste a lot of time trying to figure out a touchy kid’s tender spots.
From "The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics" by Daniel James Brown
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.
