touchiness
(ˈtʌtʃɪnɪs)
[f. as prec. + -ness.]
The quality of being touchy.
1. Sensitiveness of temper, irritability, testiness.
| 1653 Gauden Hierasp. To Rdr. 26 Nor is he ignorant of the touchinesse, and roughnesse..of many mens spirits in these times. 1660 Hickeringill Jamaica (1661) 96 Their discontents had heated them to so (tinder-like) a Touchinesse, that they were ready to take fire on all occasions. 1828 Lights & Shades II. 52 She is known only by her one absorbing quality of touchiness, and is dreaded and hated accordingly. |
2. Ticklishness, precariousness.
| 1648 Eikon Bas. iii. 14 My friends resented it as a motion..not guided with such discretion, as the touchinesse of those times required. |
3. Painting, etc.: see touchy 4.
| 1813 Examiner 8 Feb. 90/2 The heads and hands have..a rich touchiness of pencil. Ibid. 1 Mar. 141/1 The trees..have perhaps too minute a touchiness of foliage. 1821 New Monthly Mag. III. 391 It is too much limited to the outline of the body: it wants a good filling up, a breaking and touchiness in the intermediate spaces. |