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class="article"><h1 id="title" class="page-heading">touch off</h1><p class="ct"><a href="https://www.theidioms.com/t/">T</a></p><p><strong>touch off</strong></p><h2>Meaning</h2><ul><li>to ignite a thought</li><li>to make someone angry by inciting a thought</li><li>to excite someone</li><li>to gather traction on a thought or action</li><li>to brush against a topic and trigger a reaction</li></ul><h2>Example Sentences</h2><ol><li>The presentation <strong>touched off</strong> a very important point and I would like to spend some time talking about it.</li><li>I have not seen you get <strong>touched off</strong> with any of these conversations so far, so what happened today?</li><li>She got a <strong>touch off</strong> the idea when she visited the lavender gardens in Maine last year. That’s how she started her own perfume business.</li><li>You cannot <strong>touch off</strong> something and then not do anything about it. You must try to make the idea work.</li><li>Every time we meet, we <strong>touch off</strong> on the same conversation. It is getting stale now to even fight about the same events.</li><li>The tiger’s appearance outside the reserve <strong>touched off</strong> a horror in the village. Everybody was scared to step out for days.</li></ol><h2>Origin</h2><p>The phrase is American in origin and is believed to be around since the 1700’s. It comes from the firearms at the time which would be set off just by lighting the touch hole and is commonly used in political parlance currently.</p><div id="comments"><p class="syt"><a class="res" href="#respond">Share your opinions</a><a class="tho" href="#comments">1 Opinion</a></p><div class='info'><div id="comment-2424"><p>A lot older than America; this comes from the Middle Ages and the use of petards to blow castle walls and gates; the handler would roll the barrel of explosive to the position, light the touch paper, and run (hoping not to get hoisted on it). So he “touched it off” and ran.</p><p class="ink"><span class="author">‒ Chris</span> <span class="date">November 15, 2024</span></p></div></div><div id="respond" class="comment-respond"><p class="cft">What's on your mind?</p><form action="https://www.theidioms.com/wp-comments-post.php" method="post" id="commentform" class="comment-form"><p><textarea placeholder="Share information, comments, or feedback." id="comment" class="cta cff" name="comment" cols="45" rows="6" aria-required="true"></textarea></p><p><input id="author" class="atf cff" placeholder="Name" name="author" type="text" value="" size="30"></p><p><input id="email" class="etf cff" placeholder="Email" name="email" type="text" value="" size="30"></p><p><input id="url" class="wtf cff" placeholder="Website" name="url" type="text" value="" size="30"></p><p class="form-submit"><input name="submit" type="submit" id="submit" class="btf" value="Submit"> <input type='hidden' name='comment_post_ID' value='2714' 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