ˈtouchdown
Also touch-down.
[f. phr. to touch down (touch v. 30).]
1. Rugby Football, Amer. Football, etc. The act of touching the ground with the ball behind the goal-line, usually that of the opposing side, to score points; safety touchdown, the same done behind the player's own goal-line after it has been driven there by his own side, in order to prevent the opposing side from making a touchdown.
| 1864 Field 29 Oct. 315/1 The School..obtaining two ‘touches down’, which Poole..was unable to turn into a goal. 1876 in P. H. Davis Football, Amer. Intercollegiate Game (1911) 462 A match shall be decided by a majority of touchdowns. 1895 Outing (U.S.) XXVII. 249/2 Canadian system of scoring... A ‘touch-down’ or ‘try’ consists of four points with the privilege of trying a kick at the goal, which, if successful, nets the team which scored two points more. 1949 Desplaines Valley News (Summit, Illinois) 28 Oct. 7/3 Harvard could not push across a touchdown in the first half. 1977 New Yorker 9 May 122/2 A figure holding hands overhead like a referee indicating a touchdown. |
2. Aeronaut. The action of coming into contact with the ground during landing.
| 1935 P. W. F. Mills Elem. Pract. Flying vii. 102 [The purpose] of causing the actual touchdown, when it takes place, to take place with the aeroplane in its natural position on the ground. 1948 Sun (Baltimore) 3 Nov. 11/3 You are 50 feet above glide path and one quarter of a mile from touchdown. 1961 H. H. Kolbe Handbk. Astronaut. Engin. xxvii. 7 The term landing, when used in a discussion of space flight, actually can be considered as four phases: i.e., the exit from orbit, the reentry, the letdown, and the touchdown. 1975 Daily Tel. 11 Aug. 11/4 One vehicle will make a soft touchdown on Mars while the large spacecraft which carried it on its journey will remain in orbit. |