| royal touch | A touching of a patient by the king, which was thought to be curative; usually applied to patients with scrofula, but also done with patients with enlarged lymph glands (buboes) of plague. (05 Mar 2000) |
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| organ of touch | Any one of the sensory end organs. Synonym: organum tactus, tactile organ. (05 Mar 2000) |
| therapeutic touch | The placing of the hands of the healer upon the person to be cured. (12 Dec 1998) |
| touch | 1. To come in contact with; to hit or strike lightly against; to extend the hand, foot, or the like, so as to reach or rest on. "Him thus intent Ithuriel with his spear Touched lightly." (Milton) 2. To perceive by the sense of feeling. "Nothing but body can be touched or touch." (Greech) 3. To come to; to reach; to attain to. "The god, vindictive, doomed them never more- Ah, men unblessed! to touch their natal shore." (Pope) 4. To try; to prove, as with a touchstone. "Wherein I mean to touch your love indeed." (Shak) 5. To relate to; to concern; to affect. "The quarrel toucheth none but us alone." (Shak) 6. To handle, speak of, or deal with; to treat of. "Storial thing that toucheth gentilesse." (Chaucer) 7. To meddle or interfere with; as, I have not touched the books. 8. To affect the senses or the sensibility of; to move; to melt; to soften. "What of sweet before Hath touched my sense, flat seems to this and harsh." (Milton) "The tender sire was touched with what he said." (Addison) 9. To mark or delineate with touches; to add a slight stroke to with the pencil or brush. "The lines, though touched but faintly, are drawn right." (Pope) 10. To infect; to affect slightly. 11. To make an impression on; to have effect upon. "Its face . . . So hard that a file will not touch it." (Moxon) 12. To strike; to manipulate; to play on; as, to touch an instrument of music. "[They] touched their golden harps." (Milton) 13. To perform, as a tune; to play. "A person is the royal retinue touched a light and lively air on the flageolet." (Sir W. Scott) 14. To influence by impulse; to impel forcibly. " No decree of mine, . . . [to] touch with lightest moment of impulse his free will," 15. To harm, afflict, or distress. "Let us make a covenant with thee, that thou wilt do us no hurt, as we have not touched thee." (Gen. Xxvi. 28, 29) 16. To affect with insanity, especially in a slight degree; to make partially insane; rarely used except in the past participle. "She feared his head was a little touched." (Ld. Lytton) 17. <geometry> To be tangent to. See Tangent. 18. To lay a hand upon for curing disease. To touch a sail, to keep the ship as near the wind as possible. To touch up, to repair; to improve by touches or emendation. Origin: F. Toucher, OF. Touchier, tuchier; of Teutonic origin; cf. OHG. Zucchen, zukken, to twitch, pluck, draw, G. Zukken, zukken, v. Intens. Fr. OHG. Ziohan to draw, G. Ziehen, akin to E. Tug. See Tuck, Tug, and cf. Tocsin, Toccata. 1. The act of touching, or the state of being touched; contact. "Their touch affrights me as a serpent's sting." (Shak) 2. <physiology> The sense by which pressure or traction exerted on the skin is recognised; the sense by which the properties of bodies are determined by contact; the tactile sense. See Tactile sense, under Tactile. "The spider's touch, how exquisitely fine." (Pope) Pure tactile feelings are necessarily rare, since temperature sensations and muscular sensations are more or less combined with them. The organs of touch are found chiefly in the epidermis of the skin and certain underlying nervous structures. 3. Act or power of exciting emotion. "Not alone The death of Fulvia, with more urgent touches, Do strongly speak to us." (Shak) 4. An emotion or affection. "A true, natural, and a sensible touch of mercy." (Hooker) 5. Personal reference or application. "Speech of touch toward others should be sparingly used." (Bacon) 6. A stroke; as, a touch of raillery; a satiric touch; hence, animadversion; censure; reproof. "I never bare any touch of conscience with greater regret." (Eikon Basilike) 7. A single stroke on a drawing or a picture. "Never give the least touch with your pencil till you have well examined your design." (Dryden) 8. Feature; lineament; trait. "Of many faces, eyes, and hearts, To have the touches dearest prized." (Shak) 9. The act of the hand on a musical instrument; bence, in the plural, musical notes. "Soft stillness and the night Become the touches of sweet harmony." (Shak) 10. A small quantity intermixed; a little; a dash. "Eyes La touch of Sir Peter Lely in them." (Hazlitt) "Madam, I have a touch of your condition." (Shak) 11. A hint; a suggestion; slight notice. "A small touch will put him in mind of them." (Bacon) 12. A slight and brief essay. "Print my preface in such form as, in the booksellers' phrase, will make a sixpenny touch." (Swift) 13. A touchstone; hence, stone of the sort used for touchstone. " Now do I play the touch." "A neat new monument of touch and alabaster." (Fuller) 14. Hence, examination or trial by some decisive standard; test; proof; tried quality. "Equity, the true touch of all laws." (Carew) "Friends of noble touch ." (Shak) 15. The particular or characteristic mode of action, or the resistance of the keys of an instrument to the fingers; as, a heavy touch, or a light touch, also, the manner of touching, striking, or pressing the keys of a piano; as, a legato touch; a staccato touch. 16. The broadest part of a plank worked top and but (see Top and but, under Top,), or of one worked anchor-stock fashion (that is, tapered from the middle to both ends); also, the angles of the stern timbers at the counters. 17. That part of the field which is beyond the line of flags on either side. 18. A boys' game; tag. In touch, outside of bounds. To be in touch, to be in contact, or in sympathy. To keep touch. To be true or punctual to a promise or engagement; hence, to fulfill duly a function. "My mind and senses keep touch and time." (Sir W. Scott) To keep in contact; to maintain connection or sympathy;-with with or of. Touch and go, a phrase descriptive of a narrow escape. True as touch (i.e, touchstone), quite true. Origin: Cf. F. Touche. See Touch. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| touch cell | One of the epithelioid cell's of a corpusculum tactus. Synonym: touch cell. (05 Mar 2000) |
| touch corpuscle | One of numerous oval bodies found in the papillae of the skin, especially those of the fingers and toes; they consist of a connective tissue capsule in which the axon fibrils terminate around and between a pile of wedge-shaped epithelioid cells. Synonym: corpusculum tactus, Meissner's corpuscle, oval corpuscle, touch corpuscle. (05 Mar 2000) |
| touch-me-not | <botany> See Impatiens. Squirting cucumber. See Cucumber. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| touch-needle | <chemistry> A small bar of gold and silver, either pure, or alloyed in some known proportion with copper, for trying the purity of articles of gold or silver by comparison of the streaks made by the article and the bar on a touchstone. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| age spot | <dermatology> A skin disorder seen with aging (or sun exposure) where there are flat patches of increased pigmentation on the skin. They are nonserious, benign and generally more important cosmetically. The most commonly appear on sun exposed areas such as the forehead and the back of the hands. Avoidance of the sun and the use of a sunscreen (SPF of 15) can reduce the incidence of these lesions. Creams and lotions are available which bleach the skin. Cryotherapy can be used in some cases. (27 Sep 1997) |
| blind spot | The negative scotoma in the visual field, corresponding to the optic disk. Synonym: blind spot. (05 Mar 2000) |
| blue spot | A bluish stain on the skin caused by the bites of fleas or lice, especially pediculosis pubis. Synonym: blue spot, tache bleuatre. (05 Mar 2000) |
| cafe-au-lait spot | <dermatology> A pigmented cutaneous lesion, that can range from light to dark brown, and is due to an excess of melanosomes in the malpighian cells, rather than to an excess of melanocytes. Caf |
| Mariotte's blind spot | The portion of the optic nerve seen in the fundus with the ophthalmoscope. It is formed by the meeting of all the retinal ganglion cell axons as they enter the optic nerve. Because the retina at the optic disk has no photoreceptors there is a corresponding blind spot in the visual field. (12 Dec 1998) |
| cherry-red spot | The ophthalmoscopic appearance of the normal choroid beneath the fovea centralis, appearing as a red spot surrounded by white retinal oedema in central artery closure or lipid infiltration in sphingolipidosis. Synonym: Tay's cherry-red spot. (05 Mar 2000) |
| cherry-red spot myoclonus syndrome | <syndrome> A neuronal storage disorder in children characterised by a cherry red spot at the macula, progressive myoclonus, and easily controlled seizures; the result of sialidase deficiency. Type 1 is characterised by normal body habitus, cherry red macula, myoclonus, and normal beta-galactosidase levels; type 2 by short stature, bony abnormalities, and deficient beta-galactosidase. Synonym: sialidosis. (05 Mar 2000) |