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touch

(Encyclopedia)touch, tactile sensation received by the skin, enabling the organism to detect objects or substances in contact with the body. End organs (nerve endings) in the skin convey the impression to the brain...

touch-me-not

(Encyclopedia)touch-me-not, common name for any plant of the genus Impatiens of the jewelweed family. I. balsamina is also called balsam. ...

paradox

(Encyclopedia)paradox, statement that appears self-contradictory but actually has a basis in truth, e.g., Oscar Wilde's “Ignorance is like a delicate fruit; touch it and the bloom is gone.” Many New Critics mai...

runner

(Encyclopedia)runner or stolon, slender, creeping stem capable of taking root where its nodes touch the ground and thereby producing new shoots. The runner itself usually dies at the end of the season, leaving inde...

jewelweed

(Encyclopedia)jewelweed, common name for the Balsaminaceae, a family of widely distributed annual and perennial herbs. The principal genus is Impatiens, so named because of the sudden bursting of the mature seed ca...

Oz, Amos

(Encyclopedia)Oz, Amos, 1939–2018, Israeli writer, b. Jerusalem as Amos Klausner. As a teenager he changed his name to Oz [Heb.,=strength]. A former kibbutz member, Israeli soldier, and schoolteacher, he became o...

taxis

(Encyclopedia)taxis tăkˈsĭs [key], movement of animals either toward or away from a stimulus, such as light (phototaxis), heat (thermotaxis), chemicals (chemotaxis), gravity (geotaxis), and touch (thigmotaxis). ...

Dusek, Jan Ladislav

(Encyclopedia)Dusek, Jan Ladislav yän läˈdēsläf do͞oˈshĕk [key], 1760–1812, Czech pianist and composer; pupil of C. P. E. Bach. One of the earliest piano virtuosi, he was famous for his lyrical touch in s...

Driftless Area

(Encyclopedia)Driftless Area, c.13,000 sq mi (33,670 sq km), largely in SW Wis. but extending into SE Minn., NE Iowa, and NW Ill. The continental glacier which covered most surrounding regions did not touch this ar...

Martin, Mary

(Encyclopedia)Martin, Mary, 1913–90, American musical comedy star, b. Weatherford, Tex. From Martin's first stage appearance in Leave It to Me (1938), she starred in several enormously successful musicals, includ...