touchy

What it means

1. Extremely sensitive or volatile; easily disturbed to the point of becoming unstable; requiring caution or tactfulness.

   It is an extremely touchy situation, with everybody's patience wearing thin.

   1 more example

   Eminent Americans are to be invited to direct by will their interment there; and in the case of Americans not so eminent as to be invited, but who have nevertheless expressed a wish to join the others, a committee will decide. It seems a touchy business all along...

   1927, Ernest Bramah [pseudonym; Ernest Brammah Smith], Max Carrados Mysteries

   Synonyms: tetchy, delicate, touch and go, scabrous

2. Easily offended, oversensitive.

   He can be very touchy when you talk about his estranged son, so be as tactful as possible.

   2 more examples

   I can assure you, Mr Hosier, that other people are much more touchy about my blindness than I am.

   1923, Ernest Bramah [pseudonym; Ernest Brammah Smith], “(please specify the page)”, in The Eyes of Max Carrados, London: Grant Richards, →OCLC

   Ashley: Look at the size of that ship! Kaidan: The Ascension. Flagship of the Citadel fleet. Joker: Well, size isn't everything. Ashley: Why so touchy, Joker? Joker: I'm just saying you need firepower, too.

   2008, BioWare, Mass Effect (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →ISBN, →OCLC, PC, scene: Bridge, Command Deck, SSV Normandy

   Synonyms: tetchy, irritable, irascible, cranky

3. informalInclined to engage in physical touch.

   Synonyms: handsy, touchy-feely · Antonyms: untouchy

In a sentence

It is an extremely touchy situation, with everybody's patience wearing thin.

Where it comes from

A variant of earlier tetchy (“cranky, easily annoyed, difficult to handle”), under influence from some senses of touch (“affect, disturb”) and simulating touch + -y.