retouch

English

Etymology

From French retoucher.

Pronunciation

• (verb) enPR: rē-tŭchʹ, IPA^(key): /ɹɪˈtʌtʃ/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

  • Rhymes: -ʌtʃ
• (noun) enPR: rēʹ-tŭch, IPA^(key): /ˈɹiːtʌtʃ/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• Hyphenation: re‧touch

Verb

retouch (third-person singular simple present retouches, present participle retouching, simple past and past participle retouched)

1. (transitive) To improve something (especially a photograph), by adding or correcting details, or by removing flaws.
   • a. 1701 (date written), John Dryden, “Epistle the Fourteenth. To Sir Godfrey Kneller, Principal Painter to His Majesty.”, in The Miscellaneous Works of John Dryden, , volume II, London: J and R Tonson, , published 1760, →OCLC, page 201:

     For time ſhall with his ready pencil ſtand;
     Retouch your figures with his ripening hand;
     Mellow your colors, and imbrown the teint;
     Add every grace, which time alone can grant;
     To future ages ſhall your fame convey,
     And give more beauties than he takes away.

2. (transitive) To colour the roots of hair to match hair previously coloured.
3. (archaeology) To modify a flint tool by making secondary flaking along the cutting edge.

Conjugation

Derived terms

• retouching frame

Translations

Noun

retouch (plural retouches)

1. The act of retouching.

Translations

Anagrams

• Hectour, hectour, toucher