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touch wood

phraseB2informal · an editor’s judgementNot compared — the two pools are counted one word at a time, so a phrase has no score

Touch wood is said to avoid spoiling your own luck by mentioning it. You say something is going well, and then you say this.

It is one of the few superstitions almost everybody performs without believing in, and many people actually reach for a table while saying it. Americans say knock on wood. The origin is genuinely unknown, with theories about tree spirits and about the wood of the cross, none of them provable. The phrase usually comes at the end of a sentence.

The White House from Washington, DC · Public domain

Definitions of touch wood

  1. 1phrasetouch woodSaid after mentioning good fortune, to avoid tempting fate.B2

    “We have never had a leak in twenty years, touch wood.”

Also accepted in games: knock on wood

Where it comes from

From a folk practice of unclear origin.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in A Man Called Ove, Small Talk & Everyday Phrases

First appears in chapter 5 of A Man Called Ove.

Practise this word