touchy

English

Etymology

From a later variant of tachy, techy, teachie, tetchy, simulating touch +‎ -y. More at tetchy.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈtʌtʃi/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʌtʃi

Adjective

touchy (comparative touchier, superlative touchiest)

1. (of a situation) Extremely sensitive or volatile; easily disturbed to the point of becoming unstable; requiring caution or tactfulness.

   It is an extremely touchy situation, with everybody's patience wearing thin.

2. (of a person) Easily offended; oversensitive; ticklish.

   He can be very touchy when you talk about his cat, so be as tactful as possible.

Related terms

• touchy-feely

Translations

sensitive or volatile

• Czech: netýkavý
• Finnish: arkaluonteinen
• German: heikel (de), empfindlich (de)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Maori: whanewhane
• Russian: чувстви́тельный (ru) (čuvstvítelʹnyj)
• Turkish: hassas (tr), nazik (tr), ince (tr)

easily offended; oversensitive

• Armenian: նեղացկոտ (hy) (neġacʻkot)
• Czech: vztahovačný (cs), urážlivý (cs), háklivý
• Finnish: herkkätunteinen, arkatunteinen
• French: susceptible (fr)
• German: gereizt (de), reizbar (de), übelnehmerisch, empfindlich (de), (colloquial) zickig (de)
• Irish: drisíneach
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Italian: permaloso (it), facilmente irritabile, suscettibile (it)
• Maori: taringa rahirahi, āritarita
• Persian: زود رنج (zud-ranj)
• Russian: оби́дчивый (ru) (obídčivyj)
• Spanish: quisquilloso (es), picajoso, picajón
• Turkish: alıngan (tr), darılgan (tr)

See also

• tetchy
• touch and go

Anagrams

• couthy