TOUCH - The Law Mind Legal Dictionary

TOUCHAuthored

The Law Mind • 1218 words

Definition

TOUCH carries two distinct legal meanings, one rooted in maritime insurance law and one in property law. They share no substantive connection beyond the word itself.

1. Maritime insurance — to stop at a port. When a marine insurance policy grants the insured vessel "liberty to touch" or "liberty to touch and stay" at an intermediate port during the insured voyage, the vessel may lawfully call at that port without constituting a deviation that voids coverage. The permission is not unlimited: the stop must be consistent with the object and furtherance of the insured adventure, must not produce unnecessary delay, and must not enhance or vary the risk assumed by the insurer. Under the "touch and stay" formulation, the vessel may also conduct limited commercial activity at the intermediate port — breaking bulk, discharging cargo, or taking on new cargo — provided the above conditions are satisfied.

2. Property law — touch and concern. In the law of real covenants and equitable servitudes, a covenant is said to "touch and concern" the land when it relates to the use, enjoyment, or value of the burdened or benefited parcel, rather than being merely a personal obligation between the original contracting parties. The touch-and-concern requirement is one of the traditional elements that determines whether a covenant runs with the land and binds or benefits subsequent owners. Courts and commentators have long debated the precise contours of this test; it is one of the more contested doctrinal elements in property law.

Common Language

Modern common usage (Wiktionary): To make physical contact with; to bring the hand, finger, or other part of the body into contact with something; also, for two objects to meet or intersect.

Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): To come in contact with; to hit or strike lightly against; to extend the hand or foot so as to reach or rest on something; to perceive by the sense of feeling.

In ordinary English, "touch" refers to physical contact. Neither legal sense carries that meaning. In maritime insurance, "touch" is a term of navigation — it means to call at a port, not physical contact with anything. In property law, "touch and concern" is a metaphor of relation or connection: a covenant touches the land when it is legally bound up with the land's use, not when it physically contacts anything. Researchers encountering "touch" in historical legal texts must read context carefully; the word signals entirely different doctrines depending on whether the surrounding material is maritime or property law.

Common Confusion

The two legal meanings of "touch" are unrelated and should not be conflated. A researcher working in marine insurance who encounters "touch" in a policy or case is reading a navigation clause. A researcher working in property law who encounters "touch" in the context of covenants is reading a doctrine about whether a land obligation runs with ownership. The identical word appears in fundamentally different bodies of law with no doctrinal overlap.

Additionally, in the property law context, researchers sometimes conflate the "touch and concern" requirement with the privity requirements. They are separate elements. A covenant may touch and concern the land yet still fail to run if horizontal or vertical privity is absent. See the encyclopedia entry on real covenants for the full element structure.

Why It Matters in Research

In the maritime insurance context, the critical research question is almost always whether the insured's conduct at the intermediate port constituted a deviation that voided coverage or fell within the scope of a liberty clause. Historical sources consistently define "touch" as a lesser permission than "touch and stay" — Anderson's distinction between "touch" (calling for orders or cargo) and "stay" (remaining at the port) is the clearest formulation and should be kept in mind when reading older policies or cases that use one phrase but not both. The older insurance treatises underlying these dictionary entries reflect English admiralty doctrine; American courts substantially adopted the same framework, but researchers should verify which jurisdiction's law governed the policy at issue.

In the property law context, "touch and concern" is the term that demands the most research attention. The requirement has been substantially criticized and partially abandoned in modern American law. The Restatement (Third) of Property: Servitudes, adopted in 2000, largely dispensed with touch and concern as an independent requirement for servitudes, substituting a reasonableness standard. Researchers working with post-2000 American property law sources may find that courts in states that have adopted or been influenced by the Restatement analyze running covenants without explicit reference to touch and concern. However, in states that have not moved away from the traditional rule, the touch-and-concern element remains outcome-determinative and must be analyzed. Historical sources — including all four dictionary sources here — reflect the traditional framework exclusively, which can mislead researchers into applying an element that their jurisdiction has softened or discarded.

The Law Mind corpus connects TOUCH to the broader real covenant doctrine. Researchers who arrive at this entry through the property law sense should treat the encyclopedia entry on real covenants as the primary reference, with this entry providing definitional grounding only.

Historical Dictionary Support

All four historical sources — Black's (both editions), Anderson's, and Burrill's — define TOUCH exclusively in the maritime insurance sense. None addresses the property law meaning, reflecting the specialized posture of nineteenth-century legal dictionaries, which often treated admiralty and insurance terms as high-priority entries while property concepts like "touch and concern" appeared embedded within longer entries on covenants rather than as standalone terms.

Within the maritime definition, the four sources are in close agreement and appear to derive from a common treatise basis. The key substantive point all four sources share is the conditional nature of the liberty: trading at the intermediate port is permitted only when it does not cause unnecessary delay or enhance the risk. Anderson's is the most concise and adds the useful gloss that "touch" is the opposite of "stay," a distinction the other sources imply but do not state directly. Burrill's is slightly more detailed on the risk-enhancement condition. Black's first and second editions are nearly verbatim with each other on this term.

None of the historical sources address what happens when a vessel does cause unnecessary delay or enhances the risk — the consequence (voiding of the policy as a deviation) must be sourced from insurance treatises or case law rather than these dictionary entries.

Jurisdictional Note

The touch-and-concern requirement for real covenants varies significantly by jurisdiction. States following the traditional common law framework still require it; states influenced by the Restatement (Third) of Property may analyze enforceability without it. English law, from which the doctrine derives, also retains the requirement in a modified form. Researchers should not assume uniformity across American states.

Encyclopedia Cross-Reference

Real Covenants — Creation, Requirements (Writing, Intent, Touch and Concern, Privity), The Law Mind Property Law Encyclopedia

TOUCHmain

Black's Law Dictionary • 1891

In insurance law. To stop at a port. If there be liberty granted by the policy to touch, or to touch and stay, at an intermediate port on the passage, the better opinion now is that the insured may trade there, when consistent with the object and the furtherance of the adventure, by break- ing bulk, or by discharging and taking in cargo, provided it produces no unnecessary delay, nor enhances nor varies the risk. 3 Kent, Comm. 314.

TOUCHmain

Black's Law Dictionary (2nd Ed.) • 1910

In insurance law. To stop at a port. If there be liberty granted by the policy to touch, or to touch and stay, at an intermediate port on the passage, the better opinion now is that the insured may trade there, when consistent with the object and the furtherance of the adventure, by breaking bulk, or by discharging -and taking in cargo, provided it produces no unnecessary delay, nor enhances nor varies the risk. §$ Kent, Comm. 314.

TOUCHmain

Anderson's Dictionary of Law • 1890

A vessel touches at a port when she calls there for orders or a cargo. The opposite word is "stay." 4 If there be liberty granted by the policy of insurance "to touch" or "to touch and stay" at an intermediate port on the passage, the insured may trade there, when consistent with the object and furtherance of the adventure, provided it produces no unnecessary delay, nor enhances nor varies the risk. See DEVIA-

TOUCHv.

Websters Unabridged Dictionary (1913) • 1913

To come in contact with; to hit or strike lightly against; to extend the hand, foot, or the like, so as to reach or rest on. Him thus intent Ithuriel with his spear Touched lightly. Milton. To perceive by the sense of feeling. Nothing but body can be touched or touch. Greech. To come to; to reach; to attain to. The god, vindictive, doomed them never more-Ah, men unblessed! -- to touch their natal shore. Pope. To try; to prove, as with a touchstone. [Obs.] Wherein I mean to touch your love indeed. Shak. To relate to; to concern; to affect. The quarrel toucheth none but us alone. Shak. To handle, speak of, or deal with; to treat of. Storial thing that toucheth gentilesse. Chaucer. To meddle or interfere with; as, I have not touched the books. Pope. To affect the senses or the sensibility of; to move; to melt; to soften. What of sweet before Hath touched my sense, flat seems to this and harsh. Milton. The tender sire was touched with what he said. Addison. To mark or delineate with touches; to add a slight stroke to with the pencil or brush. The lines, though touched but faintly, are drawn right. Pope. To infect; to affect slightly. Bacon. To make an impression on; to have effect upon. Its face . . . so hard that a file will not touch it. Moxon. To strike; to manipulate; to play on; as, to touch an instrument of music. [They] touched their golden harps. Milton. To perform, as a tune; to play. A person is the royal retinue touched a light and lively air on the flageolet. Sir W. Scott. To influence by impulse; to impel forcibly. " No decree of mine, . . . [to] touch with lightest moment of impulse his free will," Milton. To harm, afflict, or distress. Let us make a covenant with thee, that thou wilt do us no hurt, as we have not touched thee. Gen. xxvi. 28, 29. To affect with insanity, especially in a slight degree; to make partially insane; -- rarely used except in the past participle. She feared his head was a little touched. Ld. Lytton. To be tangent to. See Tangent, a. To lay a hand upon for curing disease. To touch a sail (Naut.), to bring it so close to the wind that its weather leech shakes.  -- To touch the wind (Naut.), to keep the ship as near the wind as possible.  -- To touch up, to repair; to improve by touches or emendation.

TOUCHv.

Websters Unabridged Dictionary (1913) • 1913

To be in contact; to be in a state of junction, so that no space is between; as, two spheres touch only at points. Johnson. To fasten; to take effect; to make impression. [R.] Strong waters pierce metals, and will touch upon gold, that will not touch upon silver. Bacon. To treat anything in discourse, especially in a slight or casual manner; -- often with on or upon. If the antiquaries have touched upon it, they immediately quitted it. Addison. To be brought, as a sail, so close to the wind that its weather leech shakes. To touch and go (Naut.), to touch bottom lightly and without damage, as a vessel in motion.  -- To touch at, to come or go to, without tarrying; as, the ship touched at Lisbon.  -- To touch on or upon, to come or go to for a short time. [R.] I made a little voyage round the lake, and touched on the several towns that lie on its coasts. Addison.

TOUCHn.

Websters Unabridged Dictionary (1913) • 1913

The act of touching, or the state of being touched; contact. Their touch affrights me as a serpent's sting. Shak. The sense by which pressure or traction exerted on the skin is recognized; the sense by which the properties of bodies are determined by contact; the tactile sense. See Tactile sense, under Tactile. The spider's touch, how exquisitely fine. Pope. Act or power of exciting emotion. Not alone The death of Fulvia, with more urgent touches, Do strongly speak to us. Shak. An emotion or affection. A true, natural, and a sensible touch of mercy. Hooker. Personal reference or application. [Obs.] Speech of touch toward others should be sparingly used. Bacon. A stroke; as, a touch of raillery; a satiric touch; hence, animadversion; censure; reproof. I never bare any touch of conscience with greater regret. Eikon Basilike. A single stroke on a drawing or a picture. Never give the least touch with your pencil till you have well examined your design. Dryden. Feature; lineament; trait. Of many faces, eyes, and hearts, To have the touches dearest prized. Shak. The act of the hand on a musical instrument; bence, in the plural, musical notes. Soft stillness and the night Become the touches of sweet harmony. Shak. A small quantity intermixed; a little; a dash. Eyes La touch of Sir Peter Lely in them. Hazlitt. Madam, I have a touch of your condition. Shak. A hint; a suggestion; slight notice. A small touch will put him in mind of them. Bacon. A slight and brief essay. [Colloq.] Print my preface in such form as, in the booksellers' phrase, will make a sixpenny touch. Swift. A touchstone; hence, stone of the sort used for touchstone. [Obs.] " Now do I play the touch." Shak. A neat new monument of touch and alabaster. Fuller. Hence, examination or trial by some decisive standard; test; proof; tried quality. Equity, the true touch of all laws. Carew. Friends of noble touch . Shak. The particular or characteristic mode of action, or the resistance of the keys of an instrument to the fingers; as, a heavy touch, or a light touch, also, the manner of touching, striking, or pressing the keys of a piano; as, a legato touch; a staccato touch. The broadest part of a plank worked top and but (see Top and but, under Top, n.), or of one worked anchor-stock fashion (that is, tapered from the middle to both ends); also, the angles of the stern timbers at the counters. J. Knowles. That part of the field which is beyond the line of flags on either side. Encyc. of Rural Sports. A boys' game; tag. In touch (Football), outside of bounds. T. Hughes.  -- To be in touch, to be in contact, or in sympathy.  -- To keep touch. (a) To be true or punctual to a promise or engagement [Obs.]; hence, to fulfill duly a function. My mind and senses keep touch and time. Sir W. Scott. To keep in contact; to maintain connection or sympathy;-with with or of.  -- Touch and go, a phrase descriptive of a narrow escape.  -- True as touch (i.e., touchstone), quite true. [Obs.]

touchverb

Wiktionary (English) • 2026

Wiktionary contributors • CC BY-SA 4.0 • via Kaikki
Extracted and formatted for display by Law Mind. Source link opens the current Wiktionary page and its contributor history; it is not a frozen copy of this extract.

Primarily physical senses. | To make physical contact with; to bring the hand, finger or other part of the body into contact with. | Primarily physical senses. | To come into (involuntary) contact with; to meet or intersect. | Primarily physical senses. | To come into physical contact, or to be in physical contact. | Primarily physical senses. | To make physical contact with a thing. | Primarily physical senses. | To physically disturb; to interfere with, molest, or attempt to harm through contact. | Primarily physical senses. | To make intimate physical contact with a person. | Primarily physical senses. | To sexually excite with the fingers; to finger or masturbate. | Primarily physical senses. | To have sexual intercourse with | Primarily physical senses. | To cause to be briefly in physical contact with something. | Primarily physical senses. | To physically affect in specific ways implied by context. | Primarily physical senses. | To begin to consume, or otherwise use. | Primarily physical senses. | Of a ship or its passengers: to land, to make a short stop (at). | Primarily physical senses. | To lay hands on (someone suffering from scrofula) as a form of cure, as formerly practised by English and French monarchs. | Primarily physical senses. | To fasten; to take effect; to make impression. | Primarily physical senses. | To bring (a sail) so close to the wind that its weather leech shakes. | Primarily physical senses. | To be brought, as a sail, so close to the wind that its weather leech shakes. | Primarily physical senses. | To keep the ship as near (the wind) as possible. | Primarily non-physical senses. | To imbue or endow with a specific quality. | Primarily non-physical senses. | To deal with in speech or writing; to mention briefly, to allude to. | Primarily non-physical senses. | To deal with in speech or writing; briefly to speak or write (on or upon something). | Primarily non-physical senses. | To concern, to have to do with. | Primarily non-physical senses. | To affect emotionally; to bring about tender or painful feelings in. | Primarily non-physical senses. | To affect in a negative way, especially only slightly. | Primarily non-physical senses. | To give royal assent to by touching it with the sceptre. | Primarily non-physical senses. | To obtain money from, usually by borrowing (from a friend). | Primarily non-physical senses. | To disturb the mental functions of; to make somewhat insane; often followed with "in the head". | Primarily non-physical senses. | To be on the level of; to approach in excellence or quality. | Primarily non-physical senses. | To come close to; to approach. | Primarily non-physical senses. | To mark (a file or document) as having been modified. | To try; to prove, as with a touchstone. | To mark or delineate with touches; to add a slight stroke to with the pencil or brush. | To infect; to affect slightly. | To strike; to manipulate; to play on. | To perform, as a tune; to play. | To influence by impulse; to impel forcibly.

touchnoun

Wiktionary (English) • 2026

An act of touching, especially with the hand or finger. | The faculty or sense of perception by physical contact. | The style or technique with which one plays a musical instrument. | The particular or characteristic mode of action, or the resistance of the keys of an instrument to the fingers. | A distinguishing feature or characteristic. | A little bit; a small amount. | The part of a sports field beyond the touchlines or goal-lines. | A relationship of close communication or understanding. | The ability to perform a task well; aptitude. | Act or power of exciting emotion. | An emotion or affection. | Personal reference or application. | A single stroke on a drawing or a picture. | A brief essay. | A touchstone; hence, stone of the sort used for touchstone. | Examination or trial by some decisive standard; test; proof; tried quality. | The broadest part of a plank worked top and but, or of one worked anchor-stock fashion (that is, tapered from the middle to both ends); also, the angles of the stern timbers at the counters. | The children's game of tag. | A set of changes less than the total possible on seven bells, i.e. less than 5,040. | An act of borrowing or stealing something; a request for money. | The extent to which a person is interested or affected; the amount of outlay on something. | Tallow. | Form; standard of performance. | A disposal of the ball during a game, i.e. a kick or a handball. | touch football (a variant of rugby league that does not involve tackling)

Explore the full Law Mind legal research platform.

Subscribe Encyclopedia Sign In