Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Touchy |
TouchyAdjective1. Quick to take offense. 2. Irritable and looking for trouble; "too touchy to make judicious decisions". Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "touchy" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1615. (references) |
Note: Touchy \Touch"y\, adjective. [For techy, tetchy.]. (Websters 1913) |
Synonyms: TouchySynonyms: feisty (adj), huffy (adj), thin-skinned (adj). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Irascibility | Hasty, overhasty, quick, warm, hot, testy, touchy, techy, tetchy; like touchwood, like tinder; huffy; pettish, petulant; waspish, snappish, peppery, fiery, passionate, choleric, shrewish, " sudden and quick in quarrel ". |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Touchy |
| English words defined with "touchy": feisty ♦ Naggy ♦ touchily. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "touchy": hacked off ♦ irsha. (references) |
| Etymologies containing "touchy": techy. (references) |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | These humans are very touchy about this global warming thing. (Men in Black II; writing credit: Lowell Cunningham; Robert Gordon) No touchy! (The Emperor's New Groove; writing credit: Chris Williams; Mark Dindal) No. touchy! (The Emperor's New Groove; writing credit: Chris Williams; Mark Dindal) Boy you're touchy. (Carpool; writing credit: Don Rhymer) Some people are so touchy. (Grease; writing credit: Jim Jacobs; Warren Casey) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title |
Books | |
Music |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| "Touchy" is generally used as an adjective (general or positive) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Touchy" is used about 101 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Adjective (general or positive) | 100% | 101 | 32,488 |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expressions using "touchy": feisty touchy ♦ touchy question. Additional references. | |
| Hyphenated Usage | |
Beginning with "touchy": touchy-feely. | |
Ending with "touchy": feely-touchy. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day |
touchy | 10 |
feely touchy | 2 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "touchy"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Albanian | që lëndohet kollaj, i prekshëm (huffy, palpable, sensitive, susceptible, tactile, tangible, thin-skinned, umbrageous, vulnerable), i ndjeshëm (appreciable, delicate, fast, perceptible, sensible, sensitive, sensuous, sentient, sentimental, susceptive, tender, thin-skinned). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Arabic | سريع الغضب (combustible, crusty, hasty, inflammable, irascible, irate, irritable, passionate, peppery, quick tempered, short tempered, tempestuous, testy, tetchy, ticklish), شائك (acarpous, barbed, knotty, prickly, spiked, spiky, spiny, sticky, thistly, thorny, tricky), شديد الحساسية (exquisite, fastidious, highly strung, oversensitive, squeamish, toughy), دقيق (accurate, careful, close, delicate, elaborate, exact, express, farina, fine, flour, inappreciable, infinitesimal, intangible, just, keen, mathematical, meal, nearness, nice, painstaking, particular, pernickety, precise, punctilious, punctual, rigorous, scrupulous, searching, sharp, sound, specific, straightforward, strict, ticklish, tiny, tricky, true, veracious). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bulgarian | силно запалителен, силно избухлив, раздразнителен (bad tempered, chippy, choleric, edgy, excitable, explosive, fretful, gingery, ill, ill tempered, ill-conditioned, irascible, irritable, liverish, livery, nervous, nervy, peevish, pettish, petulant, prickly, querulous, raspy, ratty, snappish, stroppy, techy, tetchy, vinegary), обидчив (hoity toity, huffish, miffy, pettish, prickly, resentful, sensitive, spiky, squeamish, susceptible, techy, testy, tetchy, thin-skinned, umbrageous), докачлив (miffy, peevish, susceptible, umbrageous). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Chinese | "' (Crabby, fractious, Peckish). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Czech | urážlivý (abusive, contumelious, huffish, huffy, hurtful, injurious, invective, obnoxious, offensive, outrageous, petulant, shocking), přecitlivìlý (hypersensitive, mawkish, queasy, squeamish, ticklish), nedùtklivý (irritable, petulant, sensitive, testy, thin-skinned, waspish). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Farsi | نازک نارنجی (Squeamish), حساس (Acute, Alive, Delicate, Exquisite, Sensitive, Sensory, Stark, Susceptible, Techy, Tender, Ticklish, Vigilant), زودرنج (Miff, Peevish, Petulant, Querulous, Techy, Testy, Umbrageous), دل نازک . (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Finnish | pikavihainen (irascible, quick to take offence), ärtyisä (fretful, irritable, peevish, petulant), ärtyinen (fretful, irritable, peevish, petulant). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
French | susceptible. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
German | übelnehmerisch (huffily, huffish, resentful). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Greek | μυγιαγγιχτόσ (thin-skinned), εύθικτοσ (huffy, queasy, sensitive), ευερέθιστοσ (edgy, excitable, fretter, passionate, peevish, petulant, prickly, testy, waspish), ευαίσθητοσ (delicate, emotional, impressionable, mushy, queasy, responsive, sensitive, sentient, susceptible, temperamental, thin-skinned), ανέγγιχτοσ (impervious to closed, intact, untouched). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hebrew | פ'יע (squeamish, thinskinned, vulnerable), ר'יש (excitable, sensitive, squeamish, susceptible, thinskinned), וח ל"פ'ע (sensitive, susceptible, vulnerable). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hungarian | sértõdékeny (thin skin, thin-skinned, ticklish), érzékeny (affective, highly strung, irritable, miffy, penetrable, respond, responsive, sensible, sensitive, sentient, skinless, susceptible, testy, thin-skinned). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Italian | suscettibile (liable, sensitive, susceptible, ticklish), permaloso (peevish, prickly, sensitive, snappish, thin-skinned, ticklish), ombroso (nervous, shaded, shadowy, shady, skittish), nervoso (edgy, incisive, irritable, jittery, jumpy, nervous, nervy, sinewy, tense, worked up), delicato (dainty, delicate, fine, gentle, maidenly, refined, sensitive, slight, soft, sore, subtile, subtle, tender, thin, ticklish, tricky). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Manx | smorigagh (huffy), friogganagh (bad-tempered, bristly, cantankerous, crabby, echinoid, edgy, finned, finny, liverish, offended, prickly, ratty, setaceous, stickleback). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Pig Latin | ouchytay suscetível (accessible, kid-glove, likely, responsive, sensitive, sensory, sore, squeamish, susceptible, ticklish), muito inflamável (highly flammable, R11), irritável (bilious, crab, crabbed, crusty, edgy, fretful, irascible, liver-colored, liver-coloured, livery, nervous, nervy, petulant, shirty, short-tempered, techy, testy, tetchy, waspish), irascível (fractious, fretful, intractable, irascible, irritable, quarrelsome, spunky, techy, testy, tetchy, waspish), desconfiado (cagey, diffident, distrustful, mistrusted, mistrustful, shy, suspicious, trustless, umbrageous, wary). (various references) susceptibil (difficult, huffish, in, irascible, petulaht, scrupulous, sensitive, spiky, susceptible, testy, ticklish), supãrãcios (cantankerous, cross-grained, huffish, huffy, humoursome, irascible, irritable, liveried, peevish, pettish, scrupulous, short tempered, sour, testy, tetchy), sensibil (appreciably, considerable, considerably, delicate, feeling, impressible, impressionable, marked, noticeably, painful, palpable, passible, responsive, scrupulous, sensible, sensitive, sentient, susceptible, tangible, tender, thin-skinned), belaliu (difficult, fastidious, sensitive), acru (acerb, acetous, acid, acidulous, acre, acrid, acrimonious, crabbed, cross, green, peevish, sharp, sour, sourly, sulky, surly, tart, testy, unripe, vinegarish). (various references) обидчивый (hoity toity, huffish, huffy, pettish, quick to take offence, sensitive, techy, tetchy, thin-skinned, ticklish, umbrageous). (various references) quisquilloso (cantankerous, fussy, pernickety, persnickety, pettifogging, petty, spiky, squeamish). (various references) lättstött. (various references) titiz (careful, choosy, cleanly, critical, dainty, demanding, difficult, exact, exacting, exigent, fastidious, finical, finicking, finicky, fussy, hypercritical, jealous, jealous of, meticulous, niggling, niminy-piminy, particular, peevish, pernickety, picky, rigorous, scrupulous, squeamish), nazik (affable, attentive, brittle, civil, civilized, civil-spoken, complaisant, considerate, courteous, dainty, debonair, debonaire, decent, delicate, distingue, Douce, eggshell, exquisite, fair, genteel, gentle, gracious, kid glove, kind, mannerly, mild, obliging, parliamentary, polished, polite, suave, sweet-natured, tender, ticklish, tickly, trickish, tricky, urbane, well disposed), hassas (brittle, climacteric, critical, delicate, emotional, exquisite, fair, feeling, fine, impressible, impressionable, nice, passibile, precision, queasy, quick, raw, responsive, rose water, sensible, sensitive, slippery, sore, spoony, squeamish, susceptible, susceptive, tender, thin-skinned, ticklish, tickly), etkileyici (affecting, affective, charismatic, devastating, dramatic, effective, effectively, enchanting, expressive, fascinating, forceful, handsome, imposing, impressive, intense, speaking, winged), alıngan (easily offended, edgy, fragile, irritable, pettish, petulant, sensitive, sore, squeamish, stuffy, susceptible, susceptive, swift to take offence, techy, tender, testy, tetchy, thin skin, ticklish, tickly, umbrageous), çabuk küsen. (various references) цяkelek (sensitive). (various references) ризикований (adventurous, chanceful, chancy, critical, hazardous, naughty, off color, off colour, perilous, precarious, risky, risque, touch and go, venturesome, wildcat), образливий (abusive, affronting, affrontive, contumelious, humiliating, injurious, insulting, mortifying, obloquious, obscene, offending, offensive, opprobrious, ornery, outrageous, pettish, resentful, slanderous, umbrageous), надто чутливий. (various references) hay giận dỗi (testy), dễ động lòng. (various references) ffrom (angry, irascible, testy). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Misspellings | |
"Touchy" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: choochie, choochy, couchy, Nouchi, Oouchi, ouchy, pouchy, roochy, stouch, tachy, teachy, teuch, toach, toch, Torchie, torchy, touc, touchs, toughy, Touhy, Toukie, toutch, Trucchi, tuchy, Tuchyna. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "touchy" (pronounced tu"khē) |
| 3 | -u" kh ē | duchy. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "c-h-o-t-u-y" | |
-1 letter: couth, touch, youth. | |
-2 letters: ouch, thou, yuch. | |
-3 letters: cot, coy, cut, hot, hoy, hut, out, tho, thy, toy, you. | |
-4 letters: ho, oh, oy, to, uh, ut, yo. | |
| Words containing the letters "c-h-o-t-u-y" | |
+2 letters: touchily. | |
+3 letters: hypocaust, patchouly, uncouthly. | |
+4 letters: countryish, hypocausts, touchingly. | |
+5 letters: autocephaly, countermyth, ichthyosaur. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
Hexadecimal (or equivalents, 770AD-1900s) (references)54 6F 75 63 68 79 |
| Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519; backwards) (references)
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| American Sign Language (origins from 1620-1817 in Italy and, especially, France) (references)
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| Semaphore (1791, in France) (references)
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| Braille (1829, in France) (references)
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Morse Code (1836) (references)- --- ..- -.-. .... -.--. |
| Dancing Men (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1903) (references)
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Binary Code (1918-1938, probably earlier) (references)01010100 01101111 01110101 01100011 01101000 01111001 |
HTML Code (1990) (references)T o u c h y |
ISO 10646 (1991-1993) (references)0054 006F 0075 0063 0068 0079 |
| British Sign Language (Fingerspelling, BSL; 1992, British Deaf Association Dictionary of British Sign Language) (references)
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Encryption (beginner's substitution cypher): (references)548187697491 |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Usage Frequency 7. Expressions 8. Expressions: Internet | 9. Translations: Modern 10. Derivations 11. Rhymes 12. Anagrams | 13. Orthography 14. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
