touchmark

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See also: touch-mark

English

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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From touch +‎ mark.

Noun

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touchmark (plural touchmarks)

  1. (archaic) The manufacturer's official identifying sign, impressed into a pewter object.[1]
    • 1988 Dec. 1, Susan G. Sawyer, Photog Pewter the Time-Honored Way," New York Times (retrieved 5 July 2012):
      For quality control, Parliament in 1503 required all London-made pewter to be stamped with the maker's symbol or touchmark.
  2. (archaic, rare) A symbol, sign, or other inscribed indication used to aid the alignment, calibration, or other adjustment of a measuring device or scientific instrument.
    • 1876, W. H. H. Hudson, “On Observations made at San Antonio on the Total Solar Eclipse of 22 Dec. 1870”, in Proceedings of the Cambridge Philosophical Society: Mathematical and physical sciences, Volume 2, pages 205–6:
      The instrument used was a refracting telescope by Dollond. . . . The cap containing the diaphragm was furnished with a touch-mark consisting of a projecting spoke. When in adjustment as described above this mark was parallel to the short side of the parallelogram.
    • 1880, "Survey of the Albemarle and Chesapeake Canal", Report of the Chief of Engineers U.S. Army[1], page 864:
      The initial touch-mark was established at Roper's saw-mill, on the North River, and is a point on 20-penny nail driven flush with the horizontal surface of sill to bull-wheel.

References

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  1. ^ Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., 1989.

Further reading

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  • touchmark”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.