touch off

1. 1.

   put in motion or move to act

   “trigger a reaction”

   “actuate the circuits”

   Synonymstripactuatetriggeractivateset offspark offsparktrigger off

   Broaderinitiate

Questions about touch off

What does touch off mean?

touch off means "put in motion or move to act".

What is another word for touch off?

Close synonyms include trip, actuate, trigger, activate, set off. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is touch off a common word?

touch off is banded "Uncommon" — turns up in careful writing rather than conversation. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.