Touchy

//ˈtʌt͡ʃi// adj, slang

adj, slang ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    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. 2
    Easily offended, oversensitive.

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

  3. 3
    Inclined to engage in physical touch. informal
Adjective
  1. 1
    difficult to handle; requiring great tact wordnet
  2. 2
    quick to take offense wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
ticklishtetchyagitableallergicanaphylacticargumentative

Example

More examples

"She's really touchy about her new braces."

Etymology

A variant of earlier tetchy (“cranky, easily annoyed, difficult to handle”), under influence from some senses of touch (“affect, disturb”) and simulating touch + -y.

Related phrases

touch and gotouchy feely

More for "touchy"

SynonymsSentencesPronunciationTranslate

Next best steps

Find stronger synonymsSee usage examplesCheck pronunciationBrowse writing guides

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.