touch

touch tactile sensation received by the skin, enabling the organism to detect objects or substances in contact with the body. End organs (nerve endings) in the skin convey the impression to the brain. Touch sensitivity varies in different parts of the body, depending on the number of end organs present in any one area. The tip of the tongue, lips, and fingertips are three of the most sensitive areas, the back and parts of the limbs the least so. The sense of touch is very closely related to the other four sensations received by the skin: pain, pressure, heat, and cold. There is a specific kind of sensory receptor for each of the five so-called cutaneous senses. For example, light-touch receptors convey only the sensation that an object is in contact with the body, while pressure receptors convey the force, or degree, of contact. The blind learn to read by the Braille system by making use of the sensitivity to touch of the fingertips.

touch The sense that enables the texture of objects and substances to be perceived. Touch receptors occur in the skin, being concentrated in the tips of the finger in humans (see Meissner's corpuscles).

touch he that touches pitch shall be defiled proverbial saying, early 14th century, meaning that a person who chooses to put themselves in contact with wrongdoing will be marked by it; with allusion to Ecclesiasticus 12:1, ‘he that toucheth pitch, shall be defiled therewith’. (Compare if you play with fire you get burnt.)

See also touch base with, touch one's forelock, kick into touch, the Midas touch, the Nelson touch, if you gently touch a nettle, touch wood.