touch and go

touch and goadj

• 1

  obsoleteCharacterized by brief and transitory encounters.

  • Madam, I’m gone; no wonder, for you know, Lovers' encounters are but touch and go.
• 2

  Precarious, 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.

touch and goverb

• 1

  obsoleteTo briefly encounter before moving on.

  • As the text doth rise, I will touch and go a little in euery place, untill I come unto too much.
• 2

  nauticaltransportTo touch bottom lightly and continue without damage, as a vessel in motion.

  • Whilst they were disputing the vessel touched the ground, but soon got off again. "Ay," says the captain, "he is a good pilot that can touch and go."
• 3

  aeronauticsaerospaceaviationTo perform a touch-and-go landing.