touch and go
Precarious, delicate, risky, sensitivePrecarious, delicate, risky, sensitive; of uncertain outcome (by analogy with a ship in shallow water).
» It's touch and go.
CM · Tatoeba · CC BY 2.0 FRMeaning
2 sensesPrecarious, delicate, risky, sensitive; of uncertain outcome (by analogy with a ship in shallow water).
His condition was touch and go for a time after the accident, but they think he will recover.
I could sense it was touch and go whether I could get the lay.
(obsolete)Characterized by brief and transitory encounters.
Examples
9 sentencesIt's touch and go.
It was touch and go whether he would survive.
deEs stand auf des Messers Schneide, ob er überleben würde. — freddy1
It was touch-and-go there for a while.
deEs stand für eine Weile auf Messers Schneide. — Dani6187
Before you touch any food, go wash your hands first, okay?
Each time we touch the objective, we go back to square one.
Translations
1 languagesOrigin
The original sense, now obsolete, seems to have been that of brief encounters. The subsequThe original sense, now obsolete, seems to have been that of brief encounters. The subsequent nautical sense then gave rise first to the abstract sense (indicating a hazardous situation) and later, by physical analogy, to the aeronautical sense.
Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
Forms
more touch and go, most touch and go| Comparative | more touch and go Lesson |
|---|---|
| Superlative | most touch and go Lesson |
regular
Lessons for this word
2 lessons- A2Comparatives — Because it has a comparative form
- A2Superlatives — Because it has a superlative form
See also
neighbours in the dictionaryDictionary text adapted from Wiktionary (Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0) and Open English WordNet / Princeton WordNet (CC BY 4.0, WordNet License); shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. Example sentences and recordings are credited where they appear.