PHYSICAL CONTACT

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does physical contact mean? 

• PHYSICAL CONTACT (noun)
  The noun PHYSICAL CONTACT has 1 sense:

1. the act of touching physically

  Familiarity information: PHYSICAL CONTACT used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• PHYSICAL CONTACT (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The act of touching physically

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

contact; physical contact

Context example:

her fingers came in contact with the light switch

Hypernyms ("physical contact" is a kind of...):

touch; touching (the act of putting two things together with no space between them)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "physical contact"):

rub; wipe (the act of rubbing or wiping)

fair ball ((baseball) a ball struck with the bat so that it stays between the lines (the foul lines) that define the width of the playing field)

snick (a glancing contact with the ball off the edge of the cricket bat)

laying on (the act of contacting something with your hand)

 Context examples 

A mild inflammatory tissue reaction; it can be caused by physical contact with an irritant or can be a local response to a systemic trigger.

(Irritation, NCI Thesaurus)

A device that experienced electromagnetic interference (EMI) by physical contact with conductors (e.g. wires, resistors, terminals) as opposed to radiated EMI which is caused by induction (without physical contact of the conductors).

(Device Conducted Interference Evaluation Result, Food and Drug Administration)

The site at which an antibody makes direct physical contact with a corresponding epitope on an antigen.

(Antibody Binding Site, NCI Thesaurus)

These viruses spread through the air when people cough, or through physical contact (for example, on unwashed hands).

(Acute Bronchitis, NIH: National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute)