touch a nerve

• hit a nerve, strike a nerve, touch a raw nerve

An allusion to the sharp sensation felt when a dentist or surgeon physically disturbs an exposed nerve.

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touch a nerve (third-person singular simple present touches a nerve, present participle touching a nerve, simple past and past participle touched a nerve)

1. (idiomatic) To make a remark or perform a deed which produces a strong response, especially an emotional response such as anxiety or annoyance, because it calls to mind something which has been a source of concern or embarrassment.
   • 1951 August 27, “National Affairs: Right & Wrong”, in Time:

     Louis B. Seltzer, editor of the Cleveland Press, . . . banged out an editorial that raised uncomfortable questions about the state of the U.S. at a moment of world responsibility. His piece touched a nerve: in the following week, 1,000 people had tried to reach him by phone or written him letters or stopped him on the street to talk about it.

   • 1960, P. G. Wodehouse, chapter 4, in Jeeves in the Offing:

     The austerity of my tone seemed to touch a nerve and kindle the fire that always slept in this vermilion-headed menace to the common weal, for she frowned a displeased frown and told me for heaven's sake to stop goggling like a dead halibut.

   • 2007 November 8, Simon Romero, “Gunmen attack opponents of Chávez's bid to extend power”, in New York Times, retrieved 30 Aug. 2009:

     The president's supporters . . . are trying to exert greater control over universities, touching a nerve among an increasingly defiant student movement.

• strike a chord

• get on someone's nerves
• rub someone the wrong way

• “touch a nerve”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.