touch and go

The original sense, now obsolete, seems to have been that of brief encounters. The subsequent nautical sense then gave rise first to the abstract sense (indicating a hazardous situation) and later, by physical analogy, to the aeronautical sense.

touch and go (comparative more touch and go, superlative most touch and go)

1. (obsolete) Characterized by brief and transitory encounters.
   • 1665, Richard Head, The English Rogue:

     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 go (third-person singular simple present touches and goes, present participle touching and going, simple past touched and went, past participle touched and gone)

1. (obsolete) To briefly encounter before moving on.
   • 1607, Hugh Latimer, “The first Sermon preached by M. Latimer before King Edward”, in Fruitfull Sermons Preached by the right Reuerend Father, and constant Martyr of Iesus Christ, M. Hugh Latimer, page 16:

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

2. (nautical) To touch bottom lightly and continue without damage, as a vessel in motion.
   • 1771, Francis Fleming, The Life and Extraordinary Adventures, the Perils and Critical Escapes, of Timothy Ginnadrake, that Child of checquer'd Fortune, volume 2, page 29:

     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. (aviation) To perform a touch-and-go landing.