How to Use touch off in a Sentence

touch off

verb

• The hit out of bounds touched off a scuffle between the two teams near the Pell City sideline.
  — Joseph Goodman | [e-mail], al, 26 Aug. 2023
• The news touched off months of mass protests by millions against the AfD countrywide.
  — Christopher F. Schuetze, New York Times, 1 June 2024
• The shooting touched off three days of violent and fatal protests in the city.
  — Jessica Van Egeren, Journal Sentinel, 3 July 2024
• The chokehold death of Neely touched off a series of protests and vigils in the days following the episode.
  — Graham Rayman, New York Daily News, 8 Aug. 2024
• The hats have touched off a widespread case of 313 fever as fans clamor on Facebook for more merch.
  — Lisa Gutierrez, Kansas City Star, 12 June 2024
• Burnham’s death in 1985 touched off a series of events that began to change the country.
  — Gaiutra Bahadur Keisha Scarville, New York Times, 30 Mar. 2024
• The move touched off one of the most bizarre and byzantine scandals ever to hit the sports card industry.
  — Daniel Miller, Los Angeles Times, 14 Mar. 2024
• Has plenty of skill with terrific passing touch off both sides of the blade.
  — Kyle Woodlief, USA TODAY, 7 July 2022
• The screening touched off a bidding war, with A24 paying a seven-figure sum for the rights.
  — Borys Kit, The Hollywood Reporter, 27 Apr. 2023
• The attack touched off a fire that gutted the newsroom and studios, including the set for Mr. Choueiri’s show.
  — Brian Murphy, Washington Post, 23 June 2023
• Video showed a shirtless white man shove Pickett in the chest before taking a swing at his face, touching off the brawl.
  — Elizabeth Robinson, NBC News, 10 Nov. 2023
• Yet the 2018 protests touched off in part by water scarcity show the political dangers of the problem for the regime.
  — Susanna Hoffman, National Review, 9 Jan. 2024
• However, those passes were often a touch off or missed the mark, and the one time that the US put the ball in the net in the first 45 minutes was called back for offside.
  — Kyle Feldscher, CNN, 16 July 2024
• The Democrats, newly in power, had touched off the Marxist apocalypse.
  — Laura Jedeed, The New Republic, 4 Mar. 2023
• Hamas touched off the crisis Oct. 7 with its deadly blitz into Israel.
  — Rick Noack, Washington Post, 19 Oct. 2023
• Stewart knocked Corrales on all fours with a thundering right hand, touching off a fight between the teams.
  — Paul Hoynes, cleveland, 28 Aug. 2023
• The state appealed, which touched off legal wrangling about whether Cooper’s ruling should be put on hold while the appeal plays out.
  — Jim Saunders, Sun Sentinel, 18 June 2024
• The summit coincided with the two-week mark of the war, touched off by a blitz into Israel by Hamas militants.
  — Yvonne Wingett Sanchez, Washington Post, 21 Oct. 2023
• Second baseman Brandon Lowe picked the ball up and fired an off-balance throw to the plate, but the pinch-runner Tyler Wade slid head-first, ahead of the throw, to touch off the celebration.
  — New York Times, 3 Oct. 2021
• The report did touch off a flurry of coffee-spitting among Warriors’ fans, but that stuff wipes right off a computer screen.
  — Scott Ostler, SFChronicle.com, 2 Dec. 2020
• Brown’s decision to run for statewide office will touch off an open race to fill his congressional seat.
  — Bryn Stole, baltimoresun.com, 25 Oct. 2021
• The front is expected to move slowly south overnight and could touch off more storms on Saturday over south Alabama.
  — Leigh Morgan, al, 21 July 2023
• This has touched off a whole new round of legal motions to throw out drug convictions based on tainted evidence.
  — Globe Columnist, BostonGlobe.com, 23 Feb. 2023
• One of these crises, touched off in 2017 by Chinese road construction in the Doklam plateau in Bhutan, helped revive the Quad after several years of neglect.
  — Dhruva Jaishankar, Foreign Affairs, 15 Apr. 2021
• To go along with the climbing, there’s weight training and cardio equipment, slacklines, a sauna, and a second, rooftop rockwall touched off by a fire pit and views of the Manhattan skyline.
  — Seamus Webster, Fortune, 4 Aug. 2024
• Grabill’s selection of a bar date — a deadline which is standard in bankruptcy cases — could touch off a new wave of abuse claims against the local church.
  — Ramon Antonio Vargas | Staff Writer, NOLA.com, 17 Sep. 2020
• Across the northern fringe of the heat dome, daily disturbances embedded in swift jet stream flow will touch off rounds of severe thunderstorms.
  — Matthew Cappucci, Washington Post, 7 July 2022
• The Thompsons’ decision touched off an upward trajectory in their lives, said Ron Dong, 87, who grew up in the house with his parents and three siblings.
  — Lynda Lin Grigsby, NBC News, 17 Sep. 2024
• Heavy rain is likely regardless of whether Douglas makes a direct strike on one of the Hawaiian islands or just passes by, and could touch off mudslides and floods.
  — Fortune, 25 July 2020
• The deaths touched off global outrage and intensified pressure on Israel to agree to a cease-fire with Hamas that would allow more aid into Gaza.
  — Michael Levenson, New York Times, 1 Mar. 2024

Last Updated: 17 Dec 2024